I have added a few calculated columns to the BASC Survey, and ranked the performance of each force according to days taken to grant FAC, with a ranking also provided for days taken to grant a SGC. The calculated columns show an "IF" an incompetence factor, measured by how many days for grant of FAC or SGC divided by the days for Leicestershire force. IF less than 2 is green, less than 3 is yellow and 3 or greater is red.
The FAC Renewal Margin and SGC Renewal margin is number of days differing from the 8 week (56 days) being permitted by the recent law change. Holders who submit renewal applications within 8 weeks of expiry get an automatic extension of up to 8 weeks. It is clear that less than half of forces can even meet this 8 week grace period for FACs.
Big improvements should be expected in 2017 for Essex as BASC is reportedly showing them how to do their job. I recall that Essex routinely issued S7 permits because they simply could not perform renewals efficiently. The 8 week extension will clearly benefit their stats in 2017, but I seriously doubt they will move from worst performers willing to co-operate by furnishing data.
http://www.bastillian.co.uk/download/Compliance-Survey2016.pdf
It would also be of interest to see which forces had improved since the recent fee increases.
