Examination of Witnesses (Questions 100-109)
HOME OFFICE,
NATIONAL OFFENDER
MANAGEMENT SERVICE,
G4S JUSTICE SERVICES
AND SERCO
HOME AFFAIRS
15 MARCH 2006
Q100 Mr Bacon: If that is the case then
we would like to reflect it in our Report. Just one other question,
which is about the Police National Computer. On page 34, in paragraph
4.13 it states, "Details of a prisoner's previous convictions
are held on the Police National Computer. However, only 43 out
of the 113 prisons which released offenders on Home Detention
Curfew in 2004 have direct access to this computer system."
Is it still the case that most prisons, here some 70 out of the
113, do not have access to the PNC?
Sir David Normington: Yes.
Q101 Mr Bacon: How difficult is it
to get access to the PNC set up?
Sir David Normington: I am told
it is more difficult. I asked that question because it seems as
though it ought to be quite straightforward.
Q102 Mr Bacon: Apart from a laptop
computer, a telephone wire and knowledge of the relevant pass
codes and security protocols what do you need?
Sir David Normington: I think
that is what you need, though you do need some kind of security
about those who use them.
Q103 Mr Bacon: Of course, but presumably
prisons are fairly secure places; at least, one hopes so.
Sir David Normington: One would
hope so. All prisons, of course, have access to a computer. It
may just not be in the prison. They can get the information from
a computer down the road, as it were, in another prison.
Q104 Mr Bacon: Yes. It says later
on in that paragraph, "The prison does not have access to
the Police National Computer, so the team have to ask the nearest
prison with access to print off and post the relevant documents
to them."
Sir David Normington: I agree
with you there.
Q105 Mr Bacon: This is silly. There
are 70 prisons. A laptop is £500, is it not? For £35,000
you could solve the problem.
Mr Brook: There are 44 prisons,
I think, that now have access, and those are all the local prisons,
so the majority of prisoners would first go into the prison system
through those local prisons where we would pick up the information.
The problem you rightly identify is that once we have got the
computer system out we will put that information into the computer
system and then other prisons can access it directly.
Q106 Mr Bacon: Are you planning by
a certain date and, if so, when to have every prison in the country
that releases people on Curfew Orders having access directly to
the Police National Computer?
Mr Brook: That is partly a matter
for the PNC now who agreed to let us have access, so it is a negotiation
we have to have with the PNC.
Q107 Mr Bacon: And who runs the PNC?
Mr Brook: The police.
Q108 Mr Bacon: And who do the police
report to?
Sir David Normington: That is
a very interesting question. Not completely to the Home Office,
of course.
Q109 Mr Bacon: But they listen to
what you say, do they, Sir David?
Sir David Normington: They do,
and we are having that conversation with them.
Mr Bacon: Thank you very much. It has
been a very interesting hearing. It is obviously an increasingly
important part of the criminal justice system. You are spending
a lot of money on this. It sounds like some progress has been
made but there is more still to do. Thank you very much for attending
today.
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