| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
21 Jan 2003 : Column 286W—continued
Correspondence
Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 11 November from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Miss H. Abdi. [92287]
Mr. Blunkett : I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 20 January 2003.
Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 4 November from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. Ali Mohamad Oshmand. [92288]
Mr. Blunkett : I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 15 January 2003.
Criminal Records Bureau
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 10 December 2002, Official Report, column 232W, if he will ask his noble Friend the Lord Falconer of Thoroton to raise at his next weekly meeting with the chief executive of the Criminal Records Bureau the cases of constituents from Colchester who have been waiting months for their applications to be processed; and if he will make a statement on the operational performance of the Criminal Records Bureau measured against targets. [88908]
Hilary Benn: I will ask my noble friend Lord Falconer of Thoroton to raise with the chief executive of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), the issue of cases of constituents from Colchester.
The CRB has a set of published customer service standards in relation to its response times for disclosure applications:
- Timeliness of service 90 per cent. of enhanced disclosures issued within three weeks;
95 per cent. of standard disclosures issued within one week.
21 Jan 2003 : Column 287W
However, the Bureau's Service Improvement Plan is steadily delivering improved results. Over the last six full weeks before Christmas the CRB has been averaging around 45,000 disclosures per week, which is over double the weekly output issued by the police under the previous arrangements and compares to a weekly average of 24,000 in August and an average intake of 40,000 applications per week.
The average turnaround time for disclosure applications is now about five weeks but it is recognised that there are a significant number of older outstanding applications which have taken much longer than this to process.
A factor that is contributing to the bureau's inability to meet its service standards is that a small number of police forces have been unable to keep pace with the increase in the volume of applications. As some 90 per cent. of applications received by the bureau are for enhanced disclosures requiring a local police check, the capacity of the police to carry out their local searches
21 Jan 2003 : Column 288W
has a significant impact on the overall process. To deal with this situation the police are recruiting and training additional staff. While this is well advanced the problem will persist for a while.
The CRB is working with the police to address the situation. Pending the recruitment and training by the police of new permanent staff, the CRB has offered to provide staff to assist those small numbers of forces that have the greater need to improve capacity, and this assistance has been taken up in some cases. These additional local checks are not needed for standard disclosures whose processing times are therefore steadily falling.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) planned and (b) actual time taken was for each stage in commissioning the Criminal Records Bureau. [89988]
Hilary Benn: The table reflects the planned and actual time taken to complete each of the various stages in the implementation of the Registration and the High Level Disclosure Services by the Criminal Records Bureau. (CRB).
| Stage | (a) Planned time | (b) Actual time |
|---|---|---|
| Implementation of Registration Service (manual) | March 2001 | May 2001 |
| Implementation of Registration Service (automated) | March 2001 | July 2001 |
| Implementation of High Level Disclosure Service—System available for Service Testing | April 2001 | November 2001 |
| Implementation of High Level Disclosure Service—Service Commencement | August 2001 | March 2002 |
Part of the reason for the delay in the service commencement was the decision to insert a two month model office and pre-go live pilot phase.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps the Criminal Records Bureau is taking to review the Disclosure Application Form (a) to simplify it and (b) to make it easier to read and complete. [90113]
Hilary Benn: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) reviews its services continuously and uses market research and analysis of errors and complaints to shape its services.
The guidance notes that accompany the Disclosure Application Form have just been reviewed and some fundamental changes have been made to simplify the process of completion. The notes are now in a graphical format and rely less on text; this has shortened the notes from 25 pages to six. It is envisaged that the improved guidance notes will make the Disclosure Application Form easier to complete. The new guidance notes will be issued in February.
We have also recently taken a decision to no longer ask applicants to complete all sections of the Disclosure Application form. The relevant sections are E and F, which include details of applicants' bank account numbers, marital status. The Registered Bodies are being kept fully informed of the changes being made, and the CRB is providing ongoing guidance and advice to them to ensure they fully understand their role of ensuring that Disclosure Applications Forms are correctly completed before onward transmission to the CRB.
An independent team, led by Patrick Carter, have taken a fundamental look at the strategy and operations of the CRB and its private-sector partner, Capita, and recently submitted their conclusions and recommendations to my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary. Depending on decisions taken on these recommendations changes made in application processes and related business processes may affect the Disclosure Application Form. However, there is no project under way at present in relation to the layout of the form pending the outcome of these deliberations.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he would set out for each month since the Criminal Records Bureau commenced operating, how many (a) standard and (b) enhanced disclosures were (i) requested and (ii) supplied. [90116]
Hilary Benn: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) cannot provide information about the number of standard and enhanced disclosures requested because this decision rests with the registered body, depending upon the position applied for.
The following is a breakdown of the number of standard and enhanced disclosures that have been supplied, since the CRB commenced operating:
21 Jan 2003 : Column 289W
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 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
21 Jan 2003 : Column 290W
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. There were no service standards involved and therefore no question of these checks being outstanding at any time.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the (a) date and (b) purpose of each (i) past and (ii) planned system released from the Criminal Records Bureau's computer system. [90275]
Hilary Benn: The table reflects the time taken to complete each of the various stages in the implementation of the Registration and the High Level Disclosure Services by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and the purpose of each computer system release.
| Stage | Implementation date | Purpose of stage |
|---|---|---|
| Implementation of Registration Service (manual) | May 2001 | To commence the registration of organisations using a manual process in preparation for the implementation of the Disclosure Service |
| Implementation of Registration Service (automated) | July 2001 | To continue registering organisation using an automated process |
| Implementation of High Level Disclosure Service—System available for Service Testing | November 2001 | System and service testing to ensure that the Disclosure Service was robust before live operation |
| Implementation of High Level Disclosure Service—Service Commencement | March 2002 | Disclosure Service 'go live'. Commenced issuing Standard and Enhanced Disclosures |
There have been numerous minor releases to deliver enhanced performance since March 2002. Information regarding future system releases cannot be given at present because the CRB is now considering the recommendations of the Home Office independent review before planning the timing of possible future system releases.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for disclosures by the Criminal Records Bureau were cleared by (a) three weeks and (b) six weeks in each month since April 2002. [90276]
Hilary Benn: The following is a breakdown of the number of Disclosures cleared by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) in three weeks and six weeks for each month, since April 2002, up to the end of December 2002:
| April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standards | 409 | 2,070 | 4,315 | 12,828 | 14,116 | 16,497 | 22,620 | 23,257 | 22,347 |
| Enhanced | 2,389 | 17,376 | 30,585 | 76,258 | 96,295 | 116,238 | 159,226 | 159,200 | 148,706 |
| Total | 2,798 | 19,446 | 34,900 | 89,086 | 110,411 | 132,735 | 181,846 | 182,457 | 171,053 |
21 Jan 2003 : Column 291W
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many claims have been made to the Criminal Records Bureau for loss of earnings caused by delays in processing disclosure applications; how many have been agreed; what is (a) the highest and (b) the lowest compensation paid; what is the total compensation paid to date; and if he will make a statement. [90364]
Hilary Benn: 212 disclosure applicants claim to have lost earnings because the bureau delayed sending disclosures to them. These claims also involved elements of delay, inconvenience, and embarrassment. Of these claims, 166 are resolved and 46 await assessment. The highest sum paid out is £2,400.00 and the lowest is £15.00. The total sum paid out by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) for these claims is £28,900.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |