Written question asked by Lord Pickles (Conservative) on Friday, 24 March 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 28 March 2006. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Tuesday, 20 June 2006 on behalf of the Home Office.

Security Industry Authority

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average wait for a licence issued by the Security Industry Authority has been since licensing was introduced.

Answer: The SIA do not calculate the average processing times for applications. 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