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1 Jun 2009 : Column 175W—continued
The current number of data fields available for each type of record is as stated in the following table.
| Number | |
While this illustrates the data fields available they will not all be completed for every record.
Where fields are sub-divided, for example a post code may be entered in two parts, or where multiple entries can occur, for example up to 999 addresses may be entered on a person’s record, this has been counted as one data field.
(ii) Impact Nominal Index (INI)
The INI is a system used by all police forces in the United Kingdom and other joint operating authorities such as the Serious Organised Crime Agency and Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre. It provides summary level information of people who have passed through one of six business areas of the police forces. These business areas are: crime, custody, child protection, domestic violence, firearms licensing (revoked and refused) and intelligence.
The system is part of the response to Sir Michael Bichard's inquiry into the Soham murders, seeking to provide a national information sharing capability to prevent criminals escaping detection simply by crossing force boundaries.
As at 19 March 2009 there were 69,246,299 records on the INI.
Each INI record contains 15 data fields, which include eight fields for the basic nominal data such as surname, forenames, PNC ID, date of birth, age and gender.
The remaining fields contain reference information pertaining to the origin of the data such as the details of the police force/organisation, reference ID, business area and number of records held.
(iii) Police National Database (PND)
The PND has not yet been built and therefore does not contain any records or data fields.
The National DNA Database (NDNAD) plays a key role in catching criminals, eliminating the innocent from investigations and focusing the direction of inquiries. It is also one of the few long-term investigation tools, sometimes identifying criminals many years after they believe they have escaped detection. The purpose of the NDNAD is to match DNA profiles left at crime scenes with DNA profiles from known subjects and thereby provide the police with a lead for further investigation.
As at 30 March 2009 there were 5,614,411 subject profile records retained on the National DNA Database (NDNAD) from all police forces, relating to approximately 4,856,466 individuals. Of these, 5,258,779 were from English and Welsh police forces, relating to approximately 4,548,844 individuals. In addition, as at 31 December 2008 there were 343,657 crime scene profiles retained on the NDNAD, of which 329,482 were from English and Welsh police forces.
The reason why the number of subject profile records is not the same as the number of individuals is that it is possible for a profile to be loaded onto the NDNAD on more than one occasion; that is, some profiles held on the NDNAD are replicates. This can occur, for example, if the person provided different names or different versions of their name on separate arrests, or because profiles are upgraded.
All NDNAD records have the same structure consisting of 36 data fields. However, some of these fields are only relevant to subject profiles, and some are only relevant to crime scene profiles. Therefore, no record will have all data fields completed.
(v) National Fingerprint Database (IDENT.1)
IDENT1, the national fingerprint database, is central to police investigation, crime detection and public safety. It gives the ability to establish the identity of arrestees and link a presence at a crime scene with a verified identity quickly and, where necessary, to a forensic standard.
As at the end of February 2009, the IDENT1 (National Fingerprint Database) Unified Collection of Print Sets contained the verified identities of 7.8 million individuals, with which were associated 16.9 million sets of ten-prints and 6.7 million palm prints. The Unified Collection of Unresolved Crime Scene Marks contained 1.78 million finger marks and 115,000 palm marks. There were also 4,600 marks in the Serious Crime Collection.
In addition to the fields representing the biometric data above, there are five fields relating to the biographic data associated with each person: first name, surname, date of birth, gender and appearance.
(vi) National ANPR Data Centre (NADC)
Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology allows vehicle registration marks to be “read” by cameras and for the details to be compared against identified database records.
ANPR data itself involves a number of different components. These are:
The overview image, which shows a picture of those parts of vehicle captured by camera while photographing the number plate.
The plate patch, which extracts and isolates the picture of the number plate from the overview image.
The ANPR interpretation (Read) which shows how the ANPR programme has read the number plate.
Hotlists, which are lists of vehicles of interest to the police.
ANPR matches (hits) which show when an ANPR read has matched something on a hotlist.
Time, date and location stamp, which show when and where the data was obtained (the entire national system is time/date synchronised).
The NADC provides a national store for the ANPR data captured by police forces.
The NADC does not itself contain personal data. However, it does contain data which, when combined with other data sources (e.g. vehicle keeper records), could identify an individual. Access to the NADC is only permitted for major and serious investigations and requires authorisation in each case by a senior officer. The level of authority required to access ANPR data increases over time.
It is estimated that there are currently 1.3 billion records held on the system.
For each number plate read recorded, nine fields are populated. For each number plate read that matches a hotlist (for example a list of uninsured vehicles), 11 fields are populated, six fields are used to record details of cameras, four fields are used to record audit information.
(vii) UK Border Agency's e-borders programme
The Semaphore Legacy system of e-Borders currently contains over 82 million records.
The e-Borders system will capture data on passengers and crew arriving in and departing from the UK. This data is API (Advance Passenger Information) and OPI (Other Passenger Information). API will be captured on all those travelling to and from the UK and will comprise up to eight data fields. OPI will be provided by carriers on selected routes only. This will be a data record corresponding to their passenger reservation information. Carriers will only be required to provide this to the extent that it is known, the number of data fields in these records will therefore vary and none are mandatory.
Police Community Support Officers
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the expanded list of police community support officer powers outlined in the Policing Green Paper will be (a) finalised and (b) implemented nationally. [273035]
Jacqui Smith: The results of the evaluation of the powers of police community support officers will be published this summer.
Police: Internet
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions each police force has accessed social networking websites to carry out investigations in the last 10 years. [273433]
Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 13 May 2009]: The information requested is not held centrally, and the only way that it could be provided is to approach each police force directly.
Police: Manpower
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what timetable has been set for the work on redefining the role and core competencies of police sergeants and the associated accreditation process. [272928]
Jacqui Smith: The activities of the police sergeant role are being rationalised and updated as part of the first phase of the review of the Integrated Competency Framework and will be available for use within role profiles and sergeants’ Performance and Development Reviews from late June 2009.
Police: Pay
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the salary of the chief constable of each police force in England and Wales is. [276793]
Mr. Coaker: The salaries for each chief constable in England and Wales are contained in Home Office Circular 24/2008, which can be found on the Home Office website at:
I have placed a copy of this circular in the House of Commons Library.
Racially Aggravated Offences: Coventry
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department has taken to reduce the level of racially-aggravated crime in Coventry in the last 12 months. [276692]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Much of the Home Office’s work to tackle racially-aggravated and other hate crimes is at national level as the first step.
For instance, the Home Office is currently developing a Cross-Government Action Plan on Hate Crime in conjunction with other Departments and criminal justice agencies. This aims to support Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs), such as Coventry’s Community Safety Partnership, to tackle racially-aggravated crime and learn from good practice in other localities. Local areas need to be able to tailor their response to their particular situation.
Coventry’s Community Safety Partnership continues to prioritise the importance of anti-racist training which has been delivered not only to staff working in the community but also to police officers, neighbourhood wardens, social landlords and community activists. Hate crime in Coventry has been reduced by 9.1 per cent. in the 12 months of 2008-09 against the previous 12 months of 2007-08.
Sentencing
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) cautions and (b) penalty notices for disorder were issued for (i) burglary, (ii) theft and (iii) other offences in each of the last three years; and if she will make a statement. [276244]
Maria Eagle: I have been asked to reply.
Data on the number of offenders issued with (a) a caution for (i) burglary (ii) theft and (iii) other offences for England and Wales in each year from 2007 (latest available), are shown in table 1.
Data on the number of penalty notices for disorder issued for the offence of retail theft and other offences
included in the PND scheme for England and Wales in each year from 2005 to 2007 are shown in table 2. The disposal is not available for issue for burglary or for any other category of theft offence.
Cautions and PND data for 2008 will be available in the autumn of 2009.
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