Soham report IT systems still not in place

Key computer systems demanded to protect the public in the wake of the Soham murders have not been delivered.

The Impact national intelligence system, intended to be a one stop shop to check on the background of offenders, has been pushed back until 2011 despite initially being due for completion in 2007.

Meanwhile the electronic transfer of court results to the Police National Computer will not start working until August 2008 and systems to join up information about criminal records held overseas have not "progressed very quickly", an independent review has found.

All were key recommendations in the Bichard report following an inquiry into the police investigation of the murders of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.

In his review of criminality information Sir Ian Magee said: "All of these taken together suggest that some of the recommendations in the Bichard report most likely to have an impact on public protection have yet to be fully delivered."

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Magee says the timetables for implementation of these projects should be urgently reviewed and sped up, and that he expects the electronic transfer of court results to be complete by early 2009.

The report also found that processes for sharing public protection information across organisational boundaries are often absent - citing the lack of crossover between the UK Border Authority and the police; that several data formats were incompatible between organisations; and there are "multiple examples of data loss" where data is being shared.

Magee said savings of up to £400m per year could be achieved by better integrating criminal databases.

He gave the example of the Serious Organised Crime Agency reducing the number of its databases from 350 to about 50.

A total of 31 recommendations were made by Sir Michael Bichard in the wake of the Soham murders but nine are yet to be fully implemented.

His recommendations include a full review of IT systems related to criminality information management systems; urgent IT fixes to existing systems to improve information management; information sharing to become a priority in IT projects; and clearer guidance on who can access the Police National Computer.