Ms Moyagh Murdock:

I can confirm the position in this regard because I have recently had my own licence processed. If one has an online slot booked in a centre and one presents with all the correct documentation, the turnaround time is now between four and five days. The actual turnaround time, as a commitment in the service level agreement, is eight days and we are certainly delivering on that. So far, since 29 October, we have probably delivered approximately 300,000 plastic card licences through the centres. On a weekly basis, we are seeing 10,500 applications coming through. The backlog is now 3.6% and we call this work in progress.

We have individual cases where some documentation may be missing or some additional medical report is required. There are a small number of discrepancies in the system and we are doing our best to address them. We will liaise directly with individuals if they have an urgent need. For instance, if someone is going on holidays or needs something for employment, we can access the system as we have traceability throughout the system.

It is worth pointing out that we hope to shortly introduce an online tracking system for the customer in the front end. This will be something of an enhancement which we had not envisaged at the time of the contract. There are improvements taking place and we are planning ahead to improve the system. I accept that we are not yet where we want to be. We would like the system to become a leading light in terms of licence production compared to our European counterparts.