FOI/202400440716 · FOI · released
Disclosure Scotland disclosure check application statistics: FOI release
Information requested
Can you tell me how many applications for disclosure checks, including basic, standard, enhanced have been received between
1 April 2022 - 1 April 2023 1 April 2023 - 1 April 2024 1 April 2024 - 1 Nov 2024
Can you also provide a breakdown by month (1 Jan - Nov 1 2023) of how many applications have not been processed within 14 days?
Can you also provide a breakdown by month (1 Jan - Nov 1 2024) of how many applications have not been processed within 14 days?
Response
I enclose a copy of all of the information you requested which can be found below.
Notes relevant to the tables can be found in the Notes table beneath tables 1 and 2. Note markers are presented in square brackets, for example: [note 1].
Table 1: Number of applications received, by application type and financial year, from April 2022 to October 2024 [notes 1 and 2]
Time period Basic disclosure Standard disclosure Enhanced disclosure Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) disclosure Total disclosure applications received 01 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 272,430 19,375 15,278 320,208 627,291 01 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 255,202 19,148 7,172 308,831 590,353 01 April 2024 to 31 October 2024 144,359 11,838 3,884 173,599 333,680
Table 2: Number of completed applications with a processing time greater than 14 days, by month, from January to October in the years 2023 and 2024 [notes 3 to 6]
Month Number of applications with processing times greater than 14 days in 2023 Number of applications with processing times greater than 14 days in 2024 January 1,169 956 February 502 2,140 March 1,322 1,810 April 1,156 1,640 May 1,050 1,305 June 3,762 1,289 July 2,691 1,262 August 2,813 1,320 September 2,743 284 October 4,538 1,495
Notes
Note number Note text Relevant table(s) note 1 Applications received by email or sent through the Royal Mail, classified as paper channel applications, are presented by the month they are entered on the system. The time between Disclosure Scotland receiving a paper channel application and entering the application onto the system is typically four to five working days, although times may be greater during peak periods. Please note, for paper channel applications their processing time starts from the date and time they are received by Disclosure Scotland and not from the time the applications have been entered onto the system. Applications received via an online channel are presented by the month they are received. Table: 1 note 2 Any applications that are required to be manually re-entered on to the system due to error or system issues are classified as re-created applications. Please note re-created applications are not included in the received application volumes. Table: 1 note 3 A processed application incorporates all time between an application being received by Disclosure Scotland through to completion with either a paper or digital certificate issued, with the deduction of any suspension time such as customer contact. Table: 2 note 4 Weekend days are included in the number of processing days for applications but national holidays and Scottish Government public and privilege holidays are excluded. Table: 2 note 5 For paper certificate results the number of days to process an application incorporates the time between Disclosure Scotland initially receiving the application up until the application is received by the print house. For online certificate results the number of days to process an application incorporates the time between Disclosure Scotland initially receiving the application up until the time the email notification to the relevant party is issued. Table: 2 note 6 The time to process paper certificate results also reflects print schedules for the different application types. Basic, standard and enhanced applications have two print runs each day at 10am and 2pm whilst Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) applications have one print run at 12pm. For example, a basic paper certificate result sent to print after 2pm on a Friday would be printed the following week in the Monday 10am print run with the weekend days and the time up until 10am on Monday included in the processing time. For a PVG paper certificate result sent to print after 12pm on a Friday this would be printed in the following Monday's 12pm print run with the weekend days and the time up until 12pm included in the processing time. Table: 2
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