Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average waiting time for a Disclosure and Barring Service check has been with the (a) Metropolitan Police and (b) West Midlands Police in the last six months; and what steps she is taking to reduce those waiting times.

The average time taken for each police force to process the applications they receive is published on the DBS website each month and can be accessed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dbs-performance

Most police forces including the West Midland Police are meeting timeliness expectations but a small number of forces, including the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) are not. DBS are working closely with the MPS to resolve this. I continue to maintain close oversight of the progress being made.