Performance data for the Disclosure and Barring Service for March 2016 indicates that average processing time for DBS applications was 14.8 days. Certificates dispatched to applicants by the DBS in March 2016 involving (a) Cleveland Police and (b) the Metropolitan Police Service took an average of (a) 24 days and (b) 122 days.<\/p>
Protecting the public is a priority for this Government and it is important that checks undertaken are thorough; a proportion of the applications received by the DBS must be referred to one or more police forces as part of the enhanced disclosure process. In the vast majority of cases these checks are completed within target. The DBS is working closely with the small number of forces, including the MPS, whose performance does not meet turnaround time targets. The performance of police disclosure units is an operational issue for individual police forces and the MPS has established a Gold Group to oversee the recovery plan which they have in place to reduce the time taken. I have made clear to the MPS that its current delays must be addressed as a matter of priority and I continue to maintain close oversight of the progress being made.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4110", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Dame Karen Bradley"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Staffordshire Moorlands"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Karen Bradley"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2016-04-26", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "groupedQuestionUIN" : [{"_value" : "34656"} , {"_value" : "34658"} , {"_value" : "34659"} ], "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2016-04-26T11:42:15.177Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2016-04-19", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Vetting"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the time taken for the completion of pre-employment checks by the Disclosure and Barring Service.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4122", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Alex Cunningham"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Stockton North"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Alex Cunningham"} ], "uin" : "34657"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }