§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what service levels were achieved by the Criminal Records Bureau in 2002–03; and what service levels were specified in the contract with Capita. [112033]
§ Paul GogginsThe service levels achieved by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) against their published service standards between August 2002 and March 2003 are as follows (there are no figures available prior to August 2002)
Standard Disclosures—19.4 per cent issued within one week (against a target of 95 per cent)Enhanced Disclosures—52.4 per cent issued within three weeks (against a target of 90 per cent.)Turnaround times have improved as the joint service improvement plan has taken effect. Some 90 per cent of Standard Disclosures and 70 per cent of Enhanced Disclosures are now being issued within three weeks.
The following relevant service standards are set out in the contract between the Capita and the CRB:
Criminal Conviction Certificate (CCC)—Basic
Disclosure (not yet available)
Criminal Record Certificates (CRC)—Standard Disclosure
Enhanced Criminal Record Certificate (ECRC)—Enhanced Disclosure
Higher Level Certificate (HLC)—Standard and Enhanced Disclosures.
The details of Capita"s performance against the above service standards are commercial in confidence and accordingly would normally come within exemption 13 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government 141W Information. However, I have concluded that in this instance it would be in the public interest not to continue to use the exemption.
Percentages New Registrations (A2)
Registration Changes (A3)
Invalid Application (B1)
Telephone Application (B3)
Valid Application for Standards (B4)
Valid Application for Enhanced (B5)
39.0 8.7 6.5 99.3 8.0 18.0
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much it cost to appoint an independent negotiator in respect of Capita"s Criminal Record Bureau contract; and who will bear the cost. [112035]
§ Paul GogginsThe cost of procuring an independent negotiator at the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) was approximately £2,600 arising from existing staff time and effort in the Passport and Records Agency (PRA) and the CRB. The CRB will bear this cost.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many free disclosures for volunteers the Criminal Records Bureau has issued in each month since its launch; and how much they have cost. [112036]
§ Paul GogginsAs at 31 March 2003 the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has issued 1,442,000 disclosures. Out of this cumulative total 202,000 disclosures were issued free of charge to volunteers, which equates to 14 per cent. of all disclosures issued.
The cost of these free disclosures will calculate to £2,424,000, which represents a considerable saving to the voluntary sector.
There are no IT procedures at present to obtain numbers of applications from volunteers by month since launch, from the CRB database. It is expected that these enhancements will be available in subsequent system releases.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate his Department made of the unit costs in(a) 2002–03 and (b) 2003–04 of (i) standard, (ii) enhanced and (iii) basic disclosure by the Criminal Records Bureau using the (A) paper-based, (B) telephone-based and (C) electronic-based application routes; and what the actual unit costs were in 2002–03. [112041]
§ Paul GogginsThe table shows the unit costs for paper and telephone based applications for each type of disclosure.
142W
2002–03 estimate
unit costs
2003–04 estimate
unit costs
2002–03 actual unit
costs
Standard Paper 13.6 12.38 36 Telephone 13.6 12.38 31 Enhanced paper 13.6 12.38 41 Telephone 13.6 12.38 36 Basic Telephone 13.6 12.38 N/a Capita"s performance against the contractual service standards between August 2002 and March 2003 is as follows:
The estimates were prepared before "go live" in Winter 2001–02 and published in the Corporate Business Plan 2002–07 in April 2002 as an average across Disclosure types and application channels.
It should be noted Basic Disclosures were only going to be available using the telephone and electronic based application routes. Electronic applications are not applicable for 2002–03. Actual costs are estimates, subject to audit and reflect lower than expected production volumes.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the system supplied by Capita for the Criminal Records Bureau is capable of extracting data concerning individual applications that have experienced delays outside the performance standards. [112042]
§ Paul GogginsThe system supplied by Capita for the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) is capable of extracting data concerning individual applications that have experienced delays outside the performance standards. The CRB database records when an application was submitted and can be interrogated to establish whether and for how long, if at all, it had been outstanding. This can be achieved when an individual or a counter-signatory contacts the CRB to establish whether an application had been delayed.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his statement of 30 April 2003,Official Report, column 119WH, on the Criminal Records Bureau, if he will make a statement on the ways in which the system failed to meet the specification; if he will place in the Library copies of the evaluation produced from the testing prior to launch; and when the decision to accept the system was made, and by which minister. [112066]
§ Paul GogginsUnder the terms of the Contract it was for Capita to prepare and run, with the oversight and involvement of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Agency staff, an end-to-end acceptance test. This test was designed to ensure that the system processes would run without critical failure. Through programme reporting, the CRB was assured that the technical tests, which were completely within their management domain, had been run in accordance to an agreed testing strategy, to ensure that system modules performed to specification.
The end-to end acceptance test was run during November 2001 and the Capita Programme Director provided a joint test report to the CRB Board, which also took account of the Model Office and Pilot phases, on 4 March 2002. This report recommended that the system was ready for live operation. The report also provided assurance that a programme of enhancements 143W was in progress to deal with those functional shortfalls identified during system testing, but not considered critical for initial live operations. This included elements of Management Information Systems, performance of system at maximum loading and elements of workflow management. The Programme Board accepted this recommendation and on 6 March 2002 advised my right hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Withington (Mr. Bradley) as the minister with responsibility for the CRB at the time.
A copy of the evaluation produced from the testing prior to launch cannot be placed in the Library because the details are commercially sensitive and as such cannot be divulged. I refer to Section 13 of the Code of Practice to Government Information 1997 (Part II), which concerns information including commercial confidences, trade secrets or intellectual property whose unwarranted disclosure would harm the competitive position of a third party.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) planned and (b) actual completion dates are for each of the stages in the planning and implementation of the electronic-based application route for criminal record checks. [112044]
§ Paul GogginsElectronic applications to register with the Criminal Records Bureau were originally expected to be available in August 2001. However, to keep in line with high level disclosures, the implementation date was postponed until 11 March 2002. It was subsequently agreed to move the planned implementation date for electronic based applications to 30 September 2002.
On 6 September 2002, my right hon.Friend, the Home Secretary announced the appointment of an Independent Review Team (IRT) meaning the implementation of the electronic based application route was put on hold to await their findings.
One of the recommendations of the IRT was to introduce a Web-based application system and this features as part of the current renegotiations of the contract with Capita. It is too early to speculate what the outcome of the contract renegotiations will be and the attendant effect on the completion date of the electronic application route.