National IT system for police intelligence
Bichard Inquiry · The Bichard Inquiry Report · Issued 22 June 2004 · Addressed to: Home Office
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
A national IT system for England and Wales to support police intelligence should be introduced as a matter of urgency. The Home Office should take the lead and report by December 2004 with clear targets for implementation.
Bichard Inquiry, The Bichard Inquiry Report · 22 Jun 2004 Source PDF →
Response — verbatim from government
●Home Office
The Home Secretary made a statement to Parliament on 22 June 2004, the day the Bichard Inquiry Report was published, accepting all 31 recommendations in full. The government stated it was "in principle, accepting Sir Michael's main recommendations and will act on them immediately." Implementation led to the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and the creation of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (now the Disclosure and Barring Service). By February 2007, 21 of the 31 recommendations had been fully or substantially completed. See Hansard, 22 June 2004.
Home Office · 22 Jun 2004 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 1 Jan 2024 · Home Office PND 1.5 transformation programme approved to replace obsolete PND technology. PND is reaching end-of-life; the original system that Bichard envisioned as a permanent national solution now requires replacement. Source →
- 1 Jan 2015 · Home Office HMIC 'Building the Picture' inspection found continuing gaps in police information management across forces. Despite PND launch in 2011, not all forces were fully aligned with national standards. Source →
- 1 Jun 2011 · Home Office Police National Database (PND) launched, seven years after the December 2004 target. Achieved the full cross-force intelligence sharing that Bichard envisioned, replacing the limited IMPACT Nominal Index. Source →
- 7 Feb 2007 · Home Office Parliamentary debate on Bichard implementation. Government confirmed 21 of 31 recommendations fully or substantially completed. IMPACT programme costs had risen from £163M to £367M. INI system response times of 20 minutes for searches making national scaling problematic. Source →
- 1 Dec 2005 · Home Office IMPACT Nominal Index (INI) deployed to child abuse investigation units. Not available for other police work. Part of IMPACT programme to deliver a national police intelligence IT system. Source →
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.