§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been waiting for their Criminal Records Bureau applications to be processed for(a) three and (b) six weeks. [91177]
§ Hilary BennThe number of applications outstanding that are over three weeks old is 191,448 and the number of applications outstanding over six weeks is 155,413.
In order to process a disclosure application the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) requires a correctly completed application form. The bureau has identified 292W 81,440 disclosure applications, of those outstanding over six weeks, where either the registered body and/or applicant has either incorrectly completed the application or not filled in the mandatory parts of the form. Until the CRB receives this information, it cannot complete the disclosure process.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many outstanding(a) standard and (b) enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (i) disclosure and (ii) list 99 applications there were in each of the last nine months. [91201]
§ Hilary BennThe following table represents the total number of disclosure applications that have been recorded as being outstanding work in progress at the end of each month over the last nine months:
Month Number of outstanding disclosures April 40,223 May 94,873 June 148,310 July 179,347 August 192,443 September 236,433 October 258,376 November 277,462 December 251,334 Many of the outstanding applications at any time will be the subject of requests to applicants for registered bodies for future information—for example, out of the number shown for end of December, 98,960 were back with customers for this reason. Others will have been recently received—for example, within the December total, 59,960 had been in the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) less than three weeks and were hence not overdue.
Unfortunately, it has not been possible to provide a breakdown between the different levels of Disclosure because there are no IT procedures at present to extract this data from the CRB database. It is expected that this functionality will become available in subsequent system releases. As a general rule of thumb, 13 per cent. of all applications received are Standard.
The Criminal Records Bureau has neither received nor processed List 99 applications. There was a process initiated during summer 2002 where a manual off-line check was conducted on persons who were applying to work within the education sector. The CRB examined its systems and issued letters to employers in advance of the issue of Disclosures to individuals. This exercise was conducted to assist education authorities with their recruitment and it was completed at the end of July. 293W There were no service standards involved and therefore no question of these checks being outstanding at any time.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the service level agreements that have been agreed regarding the speed of processing between his Department and Capita in respect of the Criminal Records Bureau. [91204]
Table 4A: Registration Services Elapsed Time Service Levels Service Element Service Measure Service Level (Ala) Registration routine enquiry (including postal correspondence) percentage of instances performed within three days elapsed time 99.0 (Alb) Registration routine enquiry (internet) percentage of instances performed within 1 day elapsed time 99.0 (A2) New registration percentage of instances performed within five days elapsed time 95.0 (A3) Registration changes (including additional or replacement counter- percentage of instances performed within three days elapsed time signatory) 98.0
Table 4B: Certificate Services Elapsed Time Service Levels Service Element Service Measure Service Level (B1) Invalid application for CCC or HLC. Percentage of instances performed within two days elapsed time 98.0 (B2) Valid application for CCC: up to despatch of certificate. Percentage of instances performed within three days elapsed time 98.0 (B3) Telephone Application for HLC: up to issue of application form for signature and counter-signature. Percentage of instances performed within one day elapsed time 99.0 (B4) Valid application for CRC: up to despatch of certificate. Percentage of instances Performed within three days elapsed time 98.0 (B5) Valid application for ECRC: up to despatch of Certificate. Percentage of instances performed within four days elapsed time 98.0 (B6a) Certificate enquiries: postal; fax Percentage of instances performed within three days elapsed time 99.0 (B6b) Certificate enquiries: internet Percentage of instances performed within one day elapsed time 99.0 (B7) Certificate services complaints Percentage of instances performed within two days elapsed time 99.0 (B8) Certificate disputes Percentage of instances performed within one day elapsed time 100.0 (B9) Replacement Certificates Percentage of instances performed within three days elapsed time 99.0 Definitions
Elapsed time—The aggregate of the elapsed times of the Activities (or Business Processes) (for which responsibility is assigned, in Schedule 2 or otherwise, to the Contractor) performed in the provision of a Service Element, such elapsed times (a) being measured from the Service Start Point to the Service end Point and recorded on a 24 hours clock, seven days a week. Elapsed time measures expressed as a number of days shall be construed as meaning that number of days multiplied by 24 hours. For the avoidance of doubt, Elapsed time shall exclude the duration of cheque clearance processing.Criminal Record Certificates (CRC)—Standard DisclosureEnhanced Criminal Record Certificate (ECRC)—Enhanced Disclosure.Higher Level Certificate (HLC)—Standard and Enhanced Disclosures.