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DM-23

Retain documents in digitised form

Daniel Morgan Panel · The Report of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel · Issued 15 June 2021 · Addressed to: Home Office

Government responseHome Office: Noted (Jun 2023)

DeliveryNo statement from Home Office found

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation, Volume 1

It is recommended that, whenever a major incident remains under investigation or inquiry, documents should be retained in digitised form, subject to appropriate security measures and made available to those who subsequently and justifiably require access to them.

Daniel Morgan Panel, The Report of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel · 15 Jun 2021 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

The Home Office stated in June 2023 that a new Code of Practice and complementary guidance on archiving records would advise police forces on managing appropriate records to prevent obsolescence and preserving those in the public interest (Home Office response, Jun 2023). The department added that chief officers should ensure their forces maintain systems and processes to identify records meeting the criteria for permanent preservation (Home Office response, Jun 2023). The record holds no update since the department's response of June 2023 (Home Office response, Jun 2023).

Sources

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.

About this summary
This recommendation applies across many organisations. The record above reflects central policy activity; adoption in individual organisations may vary.

Government response

●Home Office · Noted · 15 Jun 2023

Words of: Home Office, Government response to the report of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel (CP 857), presented to Parliament by the Home Secretary, 15 June 2023

2.4.4. The new Code of Practice, together with a new, complementary APP on ‘Archiving of records in the public interest’, will set guidance for preserving records where there is a public interest, as well as setting out advice on how appropriate types of records should be managed to prevent obsolescence. Certain police records are archived for their historical value and enduring public interest, for example those involved in major investigations such as a murder. Chief officers should ensure their force has systems and processes in place to identify records that meet the criteria for permanent preservation.

Extract from: Government response to the report of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel

Site note: The response is arranged by theme and does not name this recommendation. This is paragraph 2.4.4, in its section "Information management", given once; the same words are recorded on recommendations 21 and 23.

Delivery

No statement on delivery from Home Office has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.

How this page is built

The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.