Progress on PNC data quality

Report: 10
Date: 11 April 2002
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report has been written in response to the concerns raised surrounding PNC data quality by the Information Commissioner and HMIC in the report 'On the Record'. The particular concern is that results of all criminal prosecutions should be promptly and accurately recorded on the Police National Computer (PNC). It outlines progress within the MPS and records that the externally set targets are unlikely to be achieved.

A. Recommendation

That members are asked to note the current position on the impending prosecution reduction target and progress towards the implementation of the recommendations of 'On the Record' and that the MPS anticipates achievement of the target by the end of May 2002.

B. Supporting information

1. The PNC and Phoenix Intelligence Information within it, holds national records from all police services with regard to offender details. This data is subject to the Data Protection Act and the police service as a whole must be able to demonstrate the accuracy and integrity of the information held on PNC.

Impending prosecutions

2. The MPS faced a considerable challenge to reduce the number of outstanding results of all criminal prosecutions from 120,000 in March 2001 to zero by the end of March 2002.

3. The project manager for impending prosecutions reports that the latest position in January, (see Appendix 1 in Supporting material), is that the MPS is unlikely to meet the Information Commissioner's target by the 31 March 2002. It is the view of HMIC that any external action thereafter will be dependent upon the scale of that failure.

4. To this end the project manager has analysed the figures. It is estimated, given current trends, that the MPS will have approximately 15/16,000 outstanding cases on the target date. Of these, cases involving warrants now account for 4,000. This figure may rise slightly once boroughs have fully updated their records.

5. In addition the project manager has estimated that 2/3,000 matters are likely to be still within the Courts' system and therefore not capable of resolution. The latter two figures coupled (approximately 7,000) can be deducted from the anticipated overall total (15/16,000) leaving approximately 8/9000 cases.

6. The reduction by the MPS of impending prosecution results by over 111,000 cases in under a year is a significant achievement. It is anticipated that compliance with the Information Commissioner's target will be achieved by the end of May and that the Information Commissioner is very likely to agree to this extension.

7. The MPS notes resolution (2) of the meeting of this Committee of the 11 December 2001 that the MPS revise the target from nil to a more realistic figure for March 2002. It needs to be clarified that the target is not one that the MPS can revise, as it has been set by the Information Commissioner and is a national target.

8. The target is in fact 'nil' for those cases over twelve months old that are not justifiable. For example the MPS can justifiable exclude from the target cases where individuals are still wanted on warrant and the MPS can show that everything has been done to trace the individual or where the case has not yet come to trial. The 7,000 cases estimated above in (5) above represents these justifiable cases.

9. The above supports resolution 4 of the meeting of this Committee of the 11 December 2001 that the members support the MPS, once the impending prosecution target is achieved, in continuing with the aim of removing this administrative burden from the police service and transferring it to the Lord Chancellor's Office where the responsibility properly sit.

PNC data quality

10. The HMIC Inspection 'On the Record' published in July 2000 made a number of recommendations to improve the current situation.

11. A position statement was produced and a PNC Steering Group was set up to develop action plans to meet the recommendations of 'On the Record'.

12. The PNC Steering Group responded by developing an action plan to tackle the recommendations. However, much of the effort to date has been devoted towards resolving the impending prosecution results.

13. On the 8, 9 and 10 January 2002 HMIC undertook a further inspection of the MPS' progress on meeting the PNC performance relating to timeliness of entry for impending prosecutions.

14. As a result of this the MPS Consultancy Group was asked to review the PNC Steering Group and the action plan and make recommendations for the both the future of the Group and plan. In February 2002 a position report was produced.

15. On the basis of this position report, the Chair of the PNC Steering Group appointed a full time project manager. The project manager has been tasked to act as a single lead to revise the original action plan and ensure the different strands of work (including that of impending prosecutions) identified in the revised action plan are planned, managed and reported on appropriately.

16. The project manager, who currently works for the MPS Consultancy Group, will start full time from the beginning of April 2002.

17. The Chair of the PNC Steering Group, DAC House is determined to drive through the implementation of the recommendations especially in the following areas:

• Data quality and compliance.
• Awareness and use of PNC.
• Training.
• Performance.
• Future development of PNC.

18. It will require a major cultural change to move the MPS from the position of considering PNC as primarily a record keeping facility to one where it is considered a crime investigation and intelligence tool.

PNC compliance audit

19. HMIC undertook a PNC compliance audit and reported their findings on the 14 February 2002. [1] They concluded that 'our review of your procedures indicates that, in the main, weakness previously identified have now been addressed'. The report identified a number of areas that needed to be 'kept in view'. Most of these relate to the action plan mentioned above.

20. The Security Inspection Unit audit data owned by the MPS on the Police National Computer. This unit implements a detailed audit plan [2] which identifies, via a risk assessment, PNC applications which have the greatest vulnerabilities in order to determine audit priorities and then undertake audits of those which pose the greatest risk.

21. The most recent audits i.e. that of the data quality of names - disposals (August 2001) and data quality of names - bail conditions (January 2002) indicate that overall the news is good (i.e. low error rate) in relation to the latter two audits. An audit of names- addresses begins this month.

22. ACPO proposes a number of performance indicators that measure timeliness and quality. [3] Currently the only timeliness performance indicators being measured by the MPS are to do with arrest and charge and court case results (police entered). The national target for the former being 100% within 24 hours and that for the latter being 90% within 72 hours. For January 2002 – arrest and charge for the MPS stands at 15.3% within 24 hours and case disposal at 78.3 % within 72 hours.

23. The other timeliness performance indicators are bail conditions (police bail 100% within 24 hours) and Court Case results (court entered)(100% within 24 hours). Where an individual is bailed to a Court from a police station with bail conditions attached the MPS PNC bureau adds this information to PNC. However, at present there is no measure of the timeliness of this.

24. None of the ACPO Quality Performance Indicators (for example: number of addresses with postcode recorded-95%) are currently recorded by the MPS, but the MPS Security Inspection Unit do dip sample the quality of a variety of PNC application like 'name's – Addresses' etc. according to the plan mentioned above.

C. Financial implications

1. HMIC conclude that a level of sustainable resources must be provided for PNC issues and this would send the strongest signal to the boroughs and other relevant departments that PNC should be taken seriously.

2. The position paper produced by Consultancy Group also supports this view. Therefore part of Inspector Pillai's work will be to identify what resources will be required to deliver the 'revised' action plan (especially in the areas identified in item 17 above).

3. No bid for additional funding has been submitted for 2002/3 and therefore the MPS will need to find these resources from within existing budgets.

4. The MPS pays over three million pounds annually for the use of PNC. In terms of Best Value it is recognised by the MPS that this serves as a significant reminder as to the need for continuous improvement.

D. Background papers

None.

E. Contact details

Report authors: Inspector Ravi Pillai, MPS.

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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