 |
 |
 |
 |
Criminal Record Bureau Fees to Double while taxpayers foot the bill
June 5, 2003 3:00 PM
Commenting on the Government's decision to more than double the charge for Criminal Record Bureau checks from July, and bail out the CRB to the tune of £19million, Liberal Democrat frontbench spokesman Paul Burstow MP said:
"Having made a balls up of the CRB, the Government is now forcing its customers and the taxpayer to bail out the flawed PFI project. Doubling the fees will hit schools, care homes and charities hardest when they are already struggling with cash shortages. "
"The fact the taxpayer has to bail out the CRB to the tune of £19 million this year demands that heads must roll. The CRB is meant to balance its books by 2007. But even after July's fee increases, they will still be losing £12 on every check it carries out because they underestimated the original costs of checks. I doubt this latest debacle of increased fees will be the last we here of this crippled PFI project. It looks likely that customers and taxpayers will be forced to dig deep yet again before 2007."
"The present catastrophe is due to disastrous planning, bad decisions and hopeless implementation, all of which can be traced back to Ministers and Capita. Ministers accepted a system that was not up to the job. Capita built a system that they must have known could not cope. Despite its failings, Capita have been fined just £1.8 million for delivering a defective system, and have been paid an extra £8.4 million to put things right. "
"The decision to shift the goal posts on turnaround times for checks is yet further evidence that the CRB is drowning in paper and unable to cope."
"The losers are vulnerable people who are owed the reassurance of CRB checks on care staff, customers who will have to pay through the nose for checks, and the taxpayer who is footing the bill for the CRB's huge losses."
"ENDS"
"Notes to editors"
"New figures obtained by Paul Burstow MP show that in 2002/03 it cost £36 to produce a standard check using the paper application route and £31 by telephone. An enhanced check costs £41 by paper and £36 by phone. Originally the CRB had estimated that it would cost £13.60 per check."
"Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate his Department made of the unit costs in (a) 2002-03 and (b) 2003-04 of (i) standard, (ii) enhanced and (iii) basic disclosure by the Criminal Records Bureau using the (A) paper-based, (B) telephone-based and (C) electronic-based application routes; and what the actual unit costs were in 2002-03. [112041]"
"Paul Goggins: The table shows the unit costs for paper and telephone based applications for each type of disclosure."
"The estimates were prepared before "go live" in Winter 2001-02 and published in the Corporate Business Plan 2002-07 in April 2002 as an average across Disclosure types and application channels."
"It should be noted Basic Disclosures were only going to be available using the telephone and electronic based application routes. Electronic applications are not applicable for 2002-03. Actual costs are estimates, subject to audit and reflect lower than expected production volumes."
"Copies of the CRB Corporate Business Plan 2003/04 can be found at :-"
"http://www.crb.gov.uk/downloads/Corp_and_bus_plan_2003-2004.pdf"
"Mr Burstow earlier today highlighted that 7 out of 8 of the Criminal Records Bureau core targets set by Capita were missed.
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats