Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average waiting time for a DBS check is in (a) Canterbury constituency, (b) Kent and (c) England.

DBS publishes its performance data on a quarterly basis. For the third quarter of 2023-24, DBS achieved the following performance:

The target to process 85% of Basic checks within 2 days was met, with an average attainment of 88.1%. The 85% target was met on day 2 and the average turnaround time was 0.9 days.

The target to process 85% of Standard checks within 5 days was met, with an average attainment of 88.5%, the 85% target was met on day 3 and the average turnaround time was 1.5 days.

The target to process 80% of Enhanced checks within 14 days was not met during the quarter, with an average attainment of 76.7%. The 80% target was met on day 18 and the average turnaround time was 11.5 days.

For the Canterbury constituency, the average turnaround time between 1/04/2023 and 31/12/2023 was 19.8 days for Enhanced checks and 1.3 days for Standard checks.

For the Kent, the average turnaround time between 1/04/2023 and 31/12/2023 was 19.9 days for Enhanced checks and 1.3 days for Standard checks.