To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Criminal Records Bureau disclosure applications were received in each of the last 12 months; how many were issued; and what the average length of time taken to issue a disclosure was in each month. (81688)

The total number of disclosure applications received and disclosures issued by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) in the last 12 months is contained in table 1.

Information on the average length of time taken to process the checks during these periods is not available in the format requested. The CRB operates to a set of a Published Service Standards (PSS) which for the majority of the period was to publish 93 per cent. of Standard Disclosures within two weeks and 90 per cent. of Enhanced Disclosures within four weeks. The monthly performance measured against the PSS is as shown in tables 2 and 3.

The four week target for Enhanced Disclosures is made up of two distinct parts. The CRB is required to process 90 per cent. of valid Enhanced Disclosure applications to the police within 10 days, with the police forces required to process 95 per cent. of the checks within a further 14 days. The CRB consistently exceeded their target in 2005-06 and, for May 2006, processed 97.4 per cent. of applications to the police within 10 days. The CRB and the police forces are working together to reduce police completion times in line with the overall service standard objectives.

The CRB recently published its Five-Year Strategy and Business Plan 2006-07 and the PSS for the financial year 2006-07 for Standard Disclosures is 90 per cent. within 10 days and for Enhanced Disclosures 90 per cent. within 28 days. The shortening of the Standard Disclosure PSS is the result of the effectiveness of the CRB’s internal processes.