The Home Office has finalised its £367m plan for a
national police database that will bring together information from
across England and Wales, police minister Hazel Blears has
announced.
The announcement, in a written parliamentary statement, comes
after MPs’ criticised the Home Office’s decision to defer the
roll-out of a national police intelligence system to 2010 - 16
years after it was first proposed. The need for a new data system
was described as “a matter of urgency" by Sir Michael Bichard in
his 2004 report into the Soham murders.
The plans drawn up under the Impact programme include a new
system to connect information held on local and national police
systems, as well as on the Police National Computer.
The plans also include developing the Impact Nominal Index
(INI), standardising a national data format and providing common
standards for police information management through the Code of
Practice on the Management of Police Information and its associated
guidance.
The Criminal Justice Information Technology organisation is to
join the Impact programme as technical delivery partner for the
Police National Database.
The Police Information Technology Organisation will continue as
technical delivery partner for the further development of INI and
the Impact Cross-Regional Information Sharing Project data
warehousing facilities. It will also transfer the Police National
Computer onto new hardware to enable it to continue until the
Police National Database is in place.
The announcement confirmed that the database would be set up by
2010.
Ms Blears said, “This is a really important and positive step
forward in delivering our commitments in response to Sir Michael
Bichard's recommendations following the Soham murders and working
with the police service to deliver more effective information
management and information sharing.