§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when he expects the Criminal Records Bureau to clear the backlog of criminal record checks for residential and nursing home care staff; and if he will make a statement; [100944]
(2) according to the most recent figures available, what the average length of time has been for prospective residential and nursing home care staff to have their criminal records checked by the CRB; [100943]
(3) how many prospective staff awaiting employment in residential and nursing homes have yet to have their criminal records checked by the Criminal Records Bureau. [100945]
§ Hilary Benn[holding answer 5 March 2003]: I am unable to provide data to the hon. Member on specific waiting times for job types because there are no IT procedures at present to extract this data from the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) database.
This functionality is expected to be available during subsequent system releases. There are no figures available on the actual number of prospective employees in residential and nursing homes who are yet to apply for Disclosure.
However, I can confirm that the backlog of all applications is falling steadily and now equates to less than two weeks' output. Backlog, defined as the number of applications outstanding across all sectors, over three weeks old, (the published CRB service standard), is 51,857. This compares with 115,483 in October 2002, and 62,687 in the last week in January 2003. I cannot state precisely when the backlog will be entirely eradicated. I can confirm that the average turnaround time for correctly completed applications is currently five weeks across all sectors. Applications are dealt with in date order and no professions are prioritised above others.