HC Deb 19 September 2002 vol 390 cc22-4W
Bob Russell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the laid down period for the Criminal Records Bureau to process an application for a disclosure; how long it is taking to process applications; and if he will make a statement. [64368]

Hilary Benn

[holding answer 25 June 2002]: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has published a set of customer service standards in relation to its response times for Disclosure applications:

Timelines of service 90 per cent. of Enhanced Disclosures

issued within three weeks
95 per cent. of Standard Disclosures

issued within one week
95 per cent. of Basic Disclosures issued

within one week

Disclosure Services,1 —382,884 Disclosure applications have been initiated. —From these, 191,782 Disclosures have been issued. —It is estimated that 40–50 per cent. of Disclosures are being issued within the three-week service standard for telephone applications (target 90 per cent. for Enhanced Disclosures). About 50 per cent. of both telephone and postal applications are being issued within five weeks.

The Criminal Records Bureau reviews its service standards regularly and accepts that it is currently not meeting these service standards. The Criminal Records Bureau is not yet meeting service standards. To address this, it has introduced a performance improvement plan including: revised procedures, recruitment of additional staff, improved management arrangements and extending working hours; a data entry backlog had been outsourced to Hays Plc's Chennai (India) data processing centre. Special procedures have been introduced for the most urgent cases. 1As at 17 March 2002

Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much money is owed within the Criminal Records Bureau; and(a) by and (b) to whom it is owed. [73288]

Hilary Benn

As at 31 March 2002 the Passport and Records Agency owed £1,387,126.28 to Capita in unpaid invoices.

Norman Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average time between receipt of a communication by the Criminal Records Bureau and an answer being sent has been in the last year. [64234]

Hilary Benn

[holding answer 25 June 2002]: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) offers three different ways to contact the Bureau—by telephone, by post or by email. The CRB aims to deal with all enquiries quickly and efficiently. Its target is to answer 90 per cent. of all telephone calls within 20 seconds. For week beginning 7 July 2002 the calls answered within target were 88 per cent., which represents an improvement on previous performance.

The CRB aims to reply to all emails that are sent to the CRB Website address within 24 hours of receipt and indications are that this target is being currently met.

The CRB aims to provide a response to written correspondence within one week of receipt. At present there is no information available to confirm to what extent this target is being met, as the details are not collated centrally.

Keith Vaz

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent steps he has taken to improve the performance of the Criminal Records Bureau. [67925]

Mr. Denham

The Criminal Records Bureau has introduced a performance improvement plan including: revised procedures, recruitment of additional staff, improved management arrangements and extending working hours; a data entry backlog had been outsourced to Hays Plc's Chennai (India) data processing centre. Special procedures have been introduced for the most urgent cases.

Mr. Wiggin

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment has been made of the costs to voluntary organisations of becoming registered bodies with the Criminal Records Bureau due to(a) charges and (b) administration costs. [72390]

Hilary Benn

The fees to become a registered body were announced on 15 February 2001. There are one-off charges of £300 for registration, and of £5 for each additional counter-signatory nominated by the registered person. The administrative costs incurred by registered bodies will depend upon a range of factors including the size of the organisation and the number of applications to be processed.