IS/IT briefing sessions – focus on DOI response to Bichard

ps/07/05
8 December 2005
MPA briefing paper

Author: Elizabeth Turner, Treasury, MPA

This briefing paper has been prepared to inform members and staff. It is not a committee report and no decisions are required.

Background

Monthly briefing sessions under the Chairmanship of Reshard Auladin (lead member for IS/IT issues), the MPA Treasury team and Ailsa Beaton, plus other appropriate Directorate of Information (DoI) officers, have recently commenced. The key purpose of these meetings is to expand the Authority’s understanding and ability to scrutinise this large area which involves significant financial spend. As such, each meeting will focus on a key area of development / activity – the most recent session focussed on DoI’s response to the Bichard recommendations.

Overall responsibility for the MPS response to Bichard lies with AC Alan Brown, however some key recommendations fall within the remit of DoI particularly around information systems and the information asset.

Information systems

A key issue for the MPS is finding out what it knows – currently information held is not easily accessible and can be held in any number of systems, and sometimes in more than one system. The most effective solution is considered to be the development of a data warehouse, which collates information from legacy systems to provide a single point for searching.

A report to Finance Committee on 17 November sought the Authority’s in principle support for taking data warehousing forward. Following the Committee, the Chief Executive wrote to the Home Office (HO) confirming this support in order to ensure that HO funds available for this project in the current financial year could be accessed before March.

The ‘physical infrastructure’ requirement is for large data storage facility and large data processing facility. Procurement activity will commence immediately (being met from the HO grant and existing budgets), with the intention being to purchase hardware before the end of this financial year and with the first outputs of the new system visible in early 2007. In the meantime, additional users will be given access to the current pilot system (increasing users from 250 to 500).

Some of the key benefits were outlined in the Finance Committee report however there is still work to be done around benefits and costs. It has been highlighted that a benefit to society might be a cost to the MPS; identification of criminals may lead to an increase in policing costs. Benefits realisation will be key at all stages of the process – pre-use, early use and full use. Benefits are already being seen from the use of the prototype, with positive feedback from 190 of the current 250 users.

A further report on data warehousing and Bichard will be submitted to a future Co-ordination and Policing Committee.

Information

The Code of Practice on the Management of Police Information came into practice on 14 November 2005. Underpinning this Home Office Code of Practice will be specific guidance on the Management of Police Information. The guidance is currently in draft form and has recently been out to consultation. MPS feedback was that further work is required on the guidance, in particular that the focus needs to be on outcomes. Redrafting of the guidance is now taking place, with the revised version due for issuing on 23 December. The MPS is engaged in the redrafting process, though doubts have been raised about the extent to which the MPS feedback will be reflected.

In parallel to the redrafting work, DoI are starting to consider what implementation of the Code might look like:

• Governance – control of information, roles and responsibilities (links to data warehousing)
• Systems – seeing information across silo boundaries, applying policy (e.g. access control, record retention)
• Business change – increasingly sophisticated systems and the impact of them.
• Financial implications – there is still work to be done on this.

A full impact assessment will be undertaken once the guidance has been issued.

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