A REPORT BY HM INSPECTORATE OF
CONSTABULARY
3
rd YEAR REVIEWS OF PRIMARY INSPECTIONS:
THE SCRO FINGERPRINT BUREAU
THE SCOTTISH CRIMINAL RECORD OFFICE
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1 This Review Inspection by HMIC focuses on the actions
taken by the Scottish Criminal Records Office (SCRO) in
response to the HMIC Primary Inspection conducted in May 2000
of its Fingerprint Bureau and the Primary Inspection of SCRO
conducted in December 2000.
FINGERPRINTS BUREAU
1.2 The Scottish Criminal Record Office Fingerprint Bureau,
now part of the newly established Scottish Fingerprint Service,
was at the time of the Primary Inspection the subject of
intense scrutiny following the disputed fingerprint examination
in the case of HMA V Shirley McKie. While positive change was
already underway in light of the review conducted by the
Scottish Fingerprint Service Working Group and independent
management consultants, HMIC was not of the view that SCRO
could be categorised as effective and efficient at that
point.
1.3 The 25 recommendations and 20 suggestions contained
within the SCRO Fingerprint Bureau Primary Inspection report of
2000 ranged across a number of areas including, structure,
processes and resources; leadership and people management;
training standards and responsibility. It was recognised that
not all were the direct responsibility of SCRO management but
would involve the SCRO Executive Committee, all forces the
Scottish Executive and other areas of the criminal justice
system. The recommendations and suggestions contained in the
Primary Inspection report were accompanied by those of the
ACPOS Presidential Review Group and the Change Management
Review Team, totalling in excess of 130 recommendations,
suggestions and findings to be addressed.
1.4 Progress in addressing all these issues was assisted by
the formation of a project management team. Indeed such was
that progress that they were able to hand over responsibility
to SCRO's management for final implementation of a remaining 20
issues in May 2001. It is to the credit of all parties involved
and in particular to the management and staff of SCRO and the
Scottish Fingerprint Service that these have all been addressed
or are well on the road to completion. See Appendix ( i ) to
Annex A.
1.5 Of the 25 recommendations and 20 suggestions contained
within the Primary Inspection report, HMIC is able to discharge
17 of the recommendations and 15 of the suggestions. It is
clear that much effort has been put into and progress made
addressing these.
1.6 From the 8 recommendations and 5 suggestions
outstanding, three key issues emerge. They can be summarised
as:
- Resourcing
- Benchmarking
- Openness
1.7 In terms of resourcing HMIC was disappointed to find
that the lack of skilled fingerprint experts in the employment
market, time required to train new experts and delay in funding
provision have conspired to prevent prompt implementation of
optimum staffing levels as recommended by the Change Management
Review Team (CMRT) scoping study. There is clear evidence that
additional staffing resources allied to more efficient working
can have measurable positive outcomes in terms of additional
fingerprint identifications that will benefit all police
forces, and ultimately the public as a whole, in the fight
against crime.
1.8 While new technology will assist internal benchmarking
between bureaux and over time, it is important that comparison
is made with other similar sized bureaux in other parts of the
United Kingdom. HMIC has recommended that such benchmarking
take place and the Head of Scottish Fingerprint Service will
pursue this to allow not only performance to be compared but
also processes.
1.9 Benchmarking with another bureau will also contribute to
a more open and transparent culture within the organisation.
Addressing the recommendations and suggestions has contributed
much to this process. HMIC welcomes the progress that has been
made to establish the Scottish Fingerprint Service from the
separate bureaux that existed within SCRO and some of the
Scottish forces at the time of the last Primary Inspection.
This development has provided a vehicle to develop and share
good practice amongst the professionals working in this arena.
It is important however that the impact of progress is gauged.
HMIC has recommended that appropriate internal and external
surveying be carried out to help assess progress. The Head of
the Scottish Fingerprint Service will pursue this.
1.10 HMIC is satisfied that all the outstanding
recommendations are being addressed and that considerable
progress has been made. However HMIC would wish to see the
impact of ongoing developments before finally discharging. They
will be revisited at the next Primary inspection in 2004.
SCRO
1.11 The period since the Primary Inspection of SCRO in 2000
has seen enormous changes in the organisation generated by a
number of pressures:
- the recommendations arising from the HMIC inspection of
the Fingerprint Bureau and the work of the ACPOS Change
Management Review Team;
- the continuing development of the Integration of the
Scottish Criminal Justice Information Systems;
- the development of Disclosure Scotland; and
- the move to new premises.
1.12 It is clear that enormous progress has been made to
address the pressures listed at paragraph 1.11 above (the
detailed issues raised in relation the Fingerprint Service are
considered separately within this report). This progress has
been achieved through significant effort on the part of the
management and staff within SCRO supported by ACPOS and the
Scottish Executive.
1.13 The 17 recommendations and 5 suggestions, contained
within the SCRO Primary Inspection report of 2000, focused
mainly on corporate issues associated with financial processes,
performance and human resource management. Each of these areas
has been addressed and SCRO continues to operate effectively
and efficiently, having established systems, recruited
expertise and developed collaborative working to service the
organisation's needs. In relation to SCRO's budget and
financial systems, the continued support of the Scottish
Executive is required to achieve full functionality and maximum
value from the accounting system. Similarly, the assumption of
full budgetary control for the personnel supporting the
delivery of fingerprint services within forces requires the
sustained collaboration of ACPOS.
1.14 In this vein, it is encouraging to be able to report
that the 17 recommendations and 5 suggestions have all been
discharged. This assessment is made recognising that some of
the matters comprised within the recommendations are not yet
fully implemented. However HMIC is satisfied that all
outstanding matters will be achieved through the processes that
have been put in place to date. These issues will be a feature
of the next Primary Inspection of SCRO in 2004.
1.15 It is anticipated that further development of the
structures within which SCRO operates will emerge from the
ongoing review of Common Police Services. HMIC welcomes the
progress made within SCRO as this will facilitate the ready
establishment of the organisation within a framework that will
seek to balance the use of collaboratively acquired and
delivered services with independently managed and controlled
provision.
2.
THE INSPECTION PROCESS
2.1 This 3rd Year "Review" Inspection by HMIC focuses on the
action taken by SCRO in response to the HMIC Primary Inspection
of the Fingerprint Bureau, (now the Scottish Fingerprint
Service), of SCRO in May 2000 and the Primary Inspection of
SCRO conducted in December 2000.
2.2 Every force and Common Police Service is subject to a
cycle of HMIC inspections consisting of Primary and Review
Inspections. A Primary Inspection deals with a broad range of
activity and makes recommendations, which are usually quite
substantial. A number of suggestions for improvement are made
in a supporting context.
2.3 HMIC recognises that the recommendations and suggestions
need to be carefully considered by the Force/Common Police
Service, often have resource implications and may need to be
approached in a phased and prioritised way.
2.4 The force or service under inspection may choose not to
follow or adopt an HMIC recommendation or suggestion, but in
such cases should set out an argued case for not doing so. In
turn, HMIC may comment on this but the debate is a public one
for the SCRO Executive Committee, Ministers and wider public to
take a view.
2.5 The Review process involves the service under review
providing comment on progress made towards, or other response
to, the recommendations and suggestions made in the Primary
Inspection Report. This response is then subject to HMIC
review, follow up inspection activity and comments are prepared
and published to reflect findings.
2.6 The Review Inspections reported in this document
comprised scrutiny of the SCRO and Fingerprint Service written
updates, followed by requests for, and examination of,
supporting material. Thereafter Staff Officers visited SCRO to
interview a range of staff from SCRO and the Scottish
Fingerprint Service and conducted a benchmarking visit to the
Fingerprint Unit of Greater Manchester Police for comparative
purposes. The inspection concluded with a visit by HMCIC, which
included a discussion with senior staff on progress in several
strategic business areas.
2.7 The findings of the Inspection are documented in the
annexes that follow this explanatory introduction. Annex A
relates to the Fingerprint Service and Annex B to SCRO.
Concluding remarks by HMIC are at the end of each annex.
2.8 This Review, which is referred to the SCRO Executive
Committee and made public on the HMIC website
(www.scotland.gov.uk/hmic), is a part of the transparency and
accountability process.