NPIA awards contract for police National database

01 April 2009, 12:16pm

The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) has awarded the contract for the design, build, delivery and operation of the Police National Database (PND) to a consortium led by Logica, following a rigorous competitive procurement process. The contract is worth £75.6 million over a seven year period.

The PND will for the first time enable the Police Service in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and other government organisations that support public protection, to electronically share, access and search existing local intelligence and operational information nationally. The PND is scheduled to be operational in 2010.

Chief Constable Peter Neyroud, Chief Executive of the NPIA said: “This is a significant milestone for the Agency, for policing and, ultimately, for the public.

“Currently, police forces are unable to search or access intelligence or other information that is held on another force’s local systems. The Police National Database will enable this by making available nationally copies of locally held information on suspects and criminals.

“This will help to make the public safer by improving the ability of the Police Service to share operational information, helping the police to stay one step ahead of the criminals.”

The lack of information sharing between police forces was found to be a contributing factor in the Soham murders in 2002. Sir Michael Bichard’s first and, in his own words, ‘most important’ recommendation arising from his subsequent inquiry into these murders was for the introduction of ‘a national IT system for England and Wales to support police intelligence’.

The development and delivery of the Police National Database, a highly secure information sharing system, will address this, providing forces with immediate access to up-to-date information from across the service.

Delivering the PND is not simply about the delivery of the IT. Delivering the PND is about business change enabled by IT and is a complex process, ensuring not just that the right IT capabilities are delivered but also that the data are ready and the necessary business changes are in place. This requires time and careful planning if the Police Service is to realise the benefits available from the PND. Consequently, this will be managed in stages. The initial phase, scheduled to be rolled out in 2010, will bring together copies of data from five operational areas of policing - custody, crime, intelligence, child abuse and domestic abuse in to one central system - and will support the following areas of policing:

- Protecting children and vulnerable adults, by being better able to understand the risk they are facing, and by more thorough vetting of people in positions of responsibility and trust;

- Understanding the threat posed by terrorism of whatever nature, and helping to reduce the risk of terrorist activity; and

- Disrupting and preventing major, serious and organised crime.

National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA)

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