# The Police (Vetting) Regulations 2025, Regulation 21: Timeliness of withdrawal assessment

Extent: E+W

(1) Subject to paragraph (3), where a withdrawal assessment is not completed within a relevant period, the assessor must provide as soon as practicable the following information in writing to the officer concerned—
(a) the progress of the withdrawal assessment,
(b) an estimate of when—
(i) the withdrawal assessment will be concluded, and
(ii) a report will be submitted under regulation 23,
(c) the reason for the length of time taken by the withdrawal assessment, and
(d) a summary of planned steps to progress the withdrawal assessment and bring it to a conclusion.
(2) For the purposes of this regulation, each of the following is a “relevant period”—
(a) the first relevant period is the period of 15 working days beginning with the first working day after the written notice was given under regulation 18(1), and
(b) each subsequent relevant period is the period of 15 working days beginning with the day after the end of the previous relevant period.
(3) The assessor must not provide information under paragraph (1) for so long as the assessor considers that it might prejudice the withdrawal assessment or any other investigation.
(4) Any information provided under paragraph (1) is subject to the harm test.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/502/regulation/21 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/police-vetting-regulations-2025/regulation-21/enacted
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.