Hey guys, quick question. I went into my local station to order my police certificate on the 24th of October and the woman that dealt with me gave me a white piece of paper bearing the Met's logo, the date, a receipt number, the amount I paid (£10) and the item I requested.

My question is: do I have another receipt coming from the Data Protection Unit or whoever, or is this the actual receipt that starts the 40 day wait? Because if it's not and I'm still waiting for the receipt, that sort of messes up our planned travel schedule. Any help is appreciated.

That's your reciept, start counting from the date on that reciept.

And although not always, the cert usually takes just under the 40 days (that's 40 normal days, not working days)

Hope you get it in time for your travel plans!

That's the second time you've been a big help to me now. Thanks again, mate, you've put my mind at ease.

For practical purposes it makes no difference. Your application would have gone in the Met internal dispatch service to Lambeth the night you submitted it. The dispatch gets sort at Lambeth and it would have been delivered to the date protection office the next day.