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 Liam Byrne (Labour) on Thursday, 9 February 2006 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Vulnerable Adults

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many checks against the protection of vulnerable adults 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: The Criminal Records Bureau's (CRB) standard and enhanced disclosures will include a check against the protection of vulnerable adults (POVA) list where this is requested on the application form. The total number of disclosures issued in 2005 containing a check against the POVA list was 1,366,698. The CRB service standards are to process 93 per cent. of standard disclosure applications within two weeks and 90 per cent. of enhanced disclosure applications within four weeks.I understand from the CRB, that there are no figures available to determine the average time taken to process a POVA check because the check forms part of the overall internal CRB disclosure process and figures are not collated centrally.

Secondary information