Written question asked by Andrew Dismore (Labour) on Monday, 27 February 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 1 March 2006. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Wednesday, 14 June 2006 on behalf of the Home Office.

Security Industry Authority

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) average, (b) shortest and (c) longest time taken to process an application for a security worker’s licence by the Security Industry Authority has been from the date of receipt of a correctly completed application to the date of dispatch of the licence; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: The SIA do not calculate average processing times. Some, such as those involving overseas criminal records checks, unavoidably take a considerable time. The SIA have a published target of processing 80 per cent. of all applications within six weeks, measured from the date that a properly completed application enters the processing system to the date that a licence is issued.From April 2004 until August 2005 the SIA processed 62 per cent. within six weeks and 88 per cent. within nine weeks.Since September 2005, there has been a backlog of applications that have been waiting to enter the system. These have added an additional time of between two and four weeks to the process, so it is now taking up to 10 weeks to process most applications.

Secondary information