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Official Statistics

DBS checks: police performance summary

Quarterly summary of how disclosure units have performed against published service standards, and average turnaround times for DBS checks at each police force.

This publication was withdrawn on

This information is no longer accurate and up to date

Documents

DBS police performance summary

Details

Tracking your application

You can use online tracking to check the progress of your DBS application.

If you have any other queries you can contact us.

Average turnaround times for DBS checks at police forces

This is taken from the first time a force is sent a check for an applicant, to the last time they close a check for the same applicant, but doesn’t include conflict time.

It includes time it may have taken an applicant to respond to any representations requested by police forces, which can impact on the overall time at force. One application could be sent to different forces.

Factors affecting police performance

Past police performance is not indicative of current or future performance. Performance can vary month-by-month as a result of any combination of the following factors:

  • demand - fluctuations in demand for DBS checks, over and above anticipated volumes (police are staffed and resourced according to forecast application intake volumes)
  • staffing - local recruitment and retention issues
  • systems/process - system changes, additions, upgrades and associated changes to processes and practices (including those that arise from changes in legislation and from government directives)

The police performance against these service standards is published on a monthly basis.

Use the tabs along the bottom of the document to view monthly statistics.

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