Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what reports she has received from (a) the Metropolitan Police and (b) other police forces of delays in processing Disclosure and Barring Service applications; and if she will make a statement.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) provides a formal monthly performance report to the Home Office and Home Office Ministers. This includes updates on the performance of police forces in meeting the Service Level Agreement (SLA) standards for the time taken to complete local disclosure checks.

The DBS monitors the performance of all police disclosure units and works closely with any force, including the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), not meeting its targets. An MPS Gold Group is overseeing the recovery plan in place at the MPS and Home Office officials maintain a close oversight of the progress being made by assessing weekly reports and through regular attendance at the Group.

It is a priority of the MPS, DBS and the Home Office to see improvements as quickly as possible and I will continue to monitor the situation closely.