New police database will give national records access for first time

The computerised Police National Database, launched on Tuesday, gives police users across England and Wales access to intelligence stored locally by UK police forces, the NPIA said. The database can only be used by authorised and vetted individuals, the NPIA said.

Scotland's eight police forces already share this information between them. That system will now be linked to the new system in England and Wales, a spokesman for NPIA told OUT-LAW.COM.

The organisation said that the database will help police in their investigations.

"We know that child abusers, drug dealers and terrorists don't respect force boundaries, but in many cases forces have been conducting their investigations in isolation, unable to see everything the police service knows about a suspect and unable to make fully informed decisions," Nick Gargan, NPIA chief executive, said in a statement.

"The [database] pulls together all that local knowledge and allows investigators to see the full intelligence picture. As a result, they can react far more quickly and effectively when it comes to protecting the public," Gargan said.

"Many people will be surprised to know that the police service has not had this capability for many years - the good news is that they have it now," Gargan said.

Local police forces store information about between 10 and 15 million people, a report by the BBC said. The data recorded includes details about convicted criminals, suspects, victims and people questioned by police without charge, the report said.

Privacy campaigners say the database should only store information about criminals, according to the BBC.

"Nobody has a problem with a database of criminals but we should never build a database of innocent people and crime victims," Daniel Hamilton, a spokesman for privacy group Big Brother Watch, said, according to the BBC.

"The risk of this data falling into the hands of criminals is too horrifying to comprehend," Hamilton said, according to the BBC.

The new database will replace an old system that allowed officers to see if other regional police forces held information or intelligence about people. Its replacement, which some forces have been using since November, lets users actually access the information, the NPIA said.

Practical problems, such as the spelling of names, identification of criminals' pseudonyms and the ability to build up a character reference about criminals, will be solved by the new database, an NPIA report (3-page / 582KB PDF) into the database said.

A new national police database was recommended by Lord Bichard following a review of police procedures. Lord Bichard was tasked with investigating police failings following the murders of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman by Ian Huntley in 2002.

The Bichard Inquiry discovered that police held information about Huntley a year before the murders but had failed to disclose the details.

"Enabling the police to identify offenders like Ian Huntley earlier means we stand a much better chance of preventing others like him slipping through the net again," Nick Gargan, NPIA chief executive, said.

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