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Scottish Criminal Record Office Primary Inspection 2004
Executive Summary and Recommendations
Overview
1 The Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) was established in 1960 as a common police service to provide criminal record information to Scottish police forces. The organisation has evolved significantly over the decades in terms of its governance arrangements, although the basic management structure continues to reflect arrangements established when SCRO was administered under the City of Glasgow Police and later Strathclyde Police forces. With the development of a formal national structure for common police services, an opportunity has been identified for the Common Police Services (CPS) Programme Board to consider the leadership and managerial support arrangements for each organisation for which it now assumes responsibility, including SCRO.
2 The range of services provided by SCRO has also undergone significant evolution. Today, SCRO has a far wider client base which extends beyond its traditional customers within the police service. Crucially, it now plays a pivotal role in a programme to integrate criminal justice information systems in Scotland and enables data entry to the Criminal History System (CHS) by partner agencies. There is little doubt that integration can bring benefits for each partner and ultimately the public, but the potential consequences for each stakeholder have to be considered. This report identifies the need for a formal framework to protect the interests of all partners in maintaining an accurate system.
3 Part V of the Police Act 1997 enables the disclosure of criminal history information to individuals and organisations for employment and certain other limited purposes. These provisions offer greater protection for children and vulnerable adults, as well as having benefits for the safety and security of the wider community. The service, provided by Disclosure Scotland, has exposed SCRO to a new and diverse customer base, coupled with the task of processing hundreds of thousands of disclosure applications each year under a public-private partnership initiative. Disclosure Scotland became overwhelmed by demand levels during 2003, but is now processing its workload within acceptable timescales. This inspection identifies benefit for SCRO in requiring implementation of contractual performance reporting. Furthermore, it highlights significant scope for Disclosure Scotland to engage actively with its customers and provide a more responsive service in terms of application form, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and invoicing arrangements.
4 Hosting of criminal record and fingerprint collections are still mainstream SCRO activities, but the means employed in providing these services continues to develop. Work is underway to introduce a replacement CHS to house the criminal record database. This development, being conducted by the Scottish Police Information Strategy (SPIS), has been subject to slippage and is now overdue. In terms of fingerprints, a new system of electronic fingerprint capture (Ident1) is being introduced which will enable the optical recording of palm prints and automate the process to search fingerprint databases throughout the United Kingdom (UK) and beyond. This must be integrated within the Scottish Fingerprint Service (SFS) in preparation for it being incorporated into a national forensic science service. Combined with the anticipated impact of Sir Michael Bichard's recommendations on information sharing following his inquiry into the Soham murders, HMIC identifies a number of issues which it will revisit at the ensuing review inspection of SCRO which is scheduled to take place in October 2006.
Key Issues
5 The following key recommendations emerge:
- comprehensive external consultation to inform the Corporate Plan
- further scope for integration of the SFS
- review of Disclosure Scotland's disclosure application form
- establishment of SLAs between registered bodies and Disclosure Scotland
- review of invoicing arrangements within Disclosure Scotland
- accountability for contractual performance within Disclosure Scotland.
6 A number of issues emerged which were of significance to SCRO, but also had national implications. HMIC recommends that these are addressed through the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS), notably:
- arrangements for hosting national computer applications
- presence of intelligence markers on CHS
- protection of stakeholders in maintaining accuracy of CHS.
Conclusion
7 HMIC considers the Scottish Criminal Record Office efficient and effective.
Recommendations
8 It is anticipated that following publication of the Report, SCRO will prepare an action plan to progress the recommendations, which will be the subject of future review by HMIC.
Scottish Criminal Record Office
Recommendation 1: HMIC recommends that SCRO undertakes comprehensive external consultation to inform the future development of its Corporate Plan (paragraph 2.7).
Recommendation 2: HMIC recommends that SCRO reviews its Race Equality Scheme, taking account of the issues raised in this Report, and produces a revised Scheme and complementary Action Plan by the scheduled revision date of August 2005 (paragraph 3.34).
Recommendation 3: HMIC recommends that SCRO considers the observations made by the Scottish Executive, Audit and Accountancy Services and implements the changes as required (paragraph 4.16).
Recommendation 4: HMIC recommends that SCRO actively pursues further integration of the SFS, taking account of the specific issues raised in this Report (paragraph 5.15).
Recommendation 5: HMIC recommends that the Disclosure Scotland application form is revised in consultation with representative service users and introduced as soon as possible after the requirements of the Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003 have been ascertained (paragraph 5.49).
Recommendation 6: HMIC recommends that Disclosure Scotland engages with registered bodies with a view to establishing a SLA in relation to performance standards and the responsibilities of both the service provider and the client in achieving them (paragraph 5.69).
Recommendation 7: HMIC recommends that Disclosure Scotland enters into consultation with registered bodies with a view to ascertaining customers' billing needs and introducing revised invoicing arrangements to address them (paragraph 5.74).
Recommendation 8: HMIC recommends that SCRO actively pursues development and submission of an agreed 'Monthly Management Information Pack' which is fit for purpose, in order to drive continuous improvement (paragraph 5.78).
Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland
Recommendation 9: HMIC is aware that ACPOS has requested SPIS to initiate the development of a crime recording system and recommends that ACPOS considers the functionality of the national stolen property index within the specification and business benefits of any new system (paragraph 5.88).
Recommendation 10: HMIC recommends that ACPOS progresses arrangements for the hosting of national computer applications and associated issues, where appropriate, through the CPS Programme Board (paragraph 5.90).
Recommendation 11: HMIC recommends that ACPOS reviews the internal Scottish Intelligence Database (SID) compliance arrangements within forces and agencies (paragraph 5.92).
Recommendation 12: HMIC recommends that ACPOS progresses the issues surrounding intelligence markers on CHS and, as a matter of urgency, considers any requirement for an interim solution to ensure the existence of force intelligence on SID is identified in disclosure requests (paragraph 5.94).
Recommendation 13: HMIC recommends that ACPOS consults with the Scottish Executive to determine a formal framework which protects the interests of all stakeholders in maintaining an accurate CHS, but which facilitates the increased efficiency in working practices which ISCJIS offers (paragraph 5.109).
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