Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Tulip Siddiq (Labour) on Tuesday, 5 January 2016, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 7 January 2016. It was answered by Karen Bradley (Conservative) on Wednesday, 20 January 2016 on behalf of the Home Office.

Vetting

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time taken was for the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) to (a) process the DBS application and either scan or return to the applicant for amendments, (b) search the Police National Computer, (c) search the Children's Barred List where appropriate, (d) search the Adults' Barred List where appropriate, (e) search the records held by local police where appropriate and (f) print the DBS certificate and return all necessary documentation to the applicant (i) nationally, (ii) in London and (iii) in Hampstead and Kilburn constituency in each year since 2012.

Answer

Table 1 shows the average number of days taken by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) to search the Police National Computer, search the records held by local police where appropriate and to print the DBS certificate and return all necessary documentation to the applicant nationally.

Period

Time to Search PNC (days)

Time to search Local Police Records (days)

Time to Print Certificate (days)

December -12 to March -13

1.12

4.22

1.28

April -13 to March -14

1.64

6.53

1.39

April -14 to March -15

3.04

7.04

2.08

April -15 to November -15

2.68

8.08

1.74

Table 2 shows the average number of days taken by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) to search the Police National Computer, search the records held by local police where appropriate and to print the DBS certificate and return all necessary documentation to applicants with a London postcode.


Period

(b) Search PNC

(e) Search Local Police Records

(f) Print Certificate

December -12 to March -13

1.25

5.14

1.16

April -13 to March -14

1.63

8.23

1.28

April -14 to March -15

2.83

10.78

1.90

April -15 to Nov-15

2.58

14.53

1.60

It is not possible to provide figures for the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency as this information is not collected.

Figures for the average processing time for scanning and returning paper applications cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.

Checks of the Children’s barred list and the Adults’ barred list are carried out in parallel to the local police checks and data on the average time taken to conduct these checks cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate costs.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
21065
Session
2015-16
Subjects
Vetting
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk