Home Office Minister Lord Falconer has pleaded for patience over delays in vetting teachers, caretakers and classroom assistants.

The backlog at the Criminal Records Bureau caused angry questioning of the minister in the House of Lords on Tuesday.

The Bishop of Portsmouth, the Right Reverend Kenneth Stevenson, said the delays were causing "chaos" for efforts to appoint teachers, clergy and a range of voluntary leaders.

The problems last month forced Education Secretary Estelle Morris to drop her department's insistence that all new school workers underwent police checks before starting work.

'Widespread worry'

The backlog of checks on people working with children and vulnerable individuals stood at 94,000 at the end of last month - the most recent figure.

Bishop Stevenson said the problems with the checks were causing widespread anxiety and called for the process to be speeded up.

Lord Falconer urged realism on solving the problems

Lord Falconer urged peers angry about the delays to "please bear with us".

There had been problems with the checks, particularly with the computer system, he said.

Now three independent people had been brought in to examine the system.

But Lord Falconer said people should not be unrealistic about how long it took to correct such problems.

Clearing the backlog

The Criminal Records Bureau in Liverpool took over the checking process in March - but was soon overwhelmed.

It thought people would apply by telephone - but most wrote in and computers struggled to decipher their handwriting.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has said the running of the CRB was "unacceptable" and had led to "chaos" and the government has sent in a team of trouble-shooters.

The CRB has massively increased its staff, using a company in India and 200 workers from the passport office to help clear the backlog.

It has said new applications will be dealt with in an average of six weeks.

The education secretary's u-turn over the checks meant head teachers could use their discretion in allowing staff to begin work before the checks were complete.