Written question asked by Lord Lansley (Conservative) on Wednesday, 18 January 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 20 January 2006. It was answered by Andy Burnham (Labour) on Monday, 30 January 2006 on behalf of the Home Office.

Protection of Children Act

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many checks against the Protection of Children Act list were made in the last year for which figures are available; and what the average time taken to respond to each check was in the last period for which figures are available.

Answer: I have been asked to reply.The Criminal Records Bureau's Standard and Enhanced Disclosures will include a check against the Protection of Children Act (POCA) list where this is requested on the application form. The total number of Disclosures issued in 2005 containing a check against the POCA list was 2,005,205. There are no figures available to determine the average time taken to process a POCA check because the check forms part of the overall internal CRB Disclosure process and figures are not collated centrally.

Secondary information