The Bichard Inquiry - Report - Digital Education Resource Archive ...

3 The job of inputting information from Form 310 onto the PNC was the
responsibility of the civilian staff in the Conviction Service Bureau, a part
of each of the three Administration Support Units that serviced the four
divisions of Humberside Police.
4 Form 310 was also sent to the relevant Divisional Intelligence Bureaux (DIBx)
– in each of the divisions of Humberside Police. The DIBx were staffed by a
combination of police officers and civilian staff and were understood, at
least by operational officers, to be responsible for inputting information and
intelligence onto the local police intelligence system, CIS Nominals.
5 When the ICJS was introduced, between 1995 and 1997, a copy of a
charge prepared on it would automatically print out in the local Conviction
Service Bureau. This would then be used immediately to create a skeleton
PNC record. Later, the full arrest/summons report would be completed after
receipt of Form 310, as explained above.
6 Before November 1995, in common with other police forces, Humberside
Police did not put any cautions for reportable offences onto the PNC,
because the PNC program was not designed to allow this. Instead, they
were recorded locally on CIS Nominals.
7 After November 1995, such cautions could be put onto the PNC, but any
issued before that date were not immediately put onto the system. In 1999
Humberside Police implemented a back-record conversion programme
for a limited number of offences, following liaison with the Home Office.
(Police forces wishing to convert existing cautions were required first to
liaise with the Home Office, due to a concern that a large-scale conversion
exercise would cause a backlog at the National Fingerprint Office, as
fingerprint records were required to confirm the identity of the subject of
the electronic record.)
8 It was the responsibility of the local police force that had created the
records to review and delete them when appropriate, under data
protection legislation.
9 Humberside Police would conduct the review at the relevant time, in
accordance with the Association of Chief Police Officers’ (ACPO) Code of
Practice on Data Protection 1995 (called the 1995 ACPO Code).
10 In May 1996, Humberside Police introduced a process by which certain
cases (including those involving a court case where there had been an
acquittal for unlawful sexual intercourse or other sex offences) would be
reported to a supervisor so that a decision whether or not to keep a record
on the PNC, in accordance with the 1995 ACPO Code, could be taken at
superintendent level.
The CIS
11 The CIS was a local database, with two applications, operated by
Humberside Police. In 1995, the system had been with the force for about
ten years. It was designed as ‘an information-management and intelligence
172 The Bichard Inquiry – Appendix 3