Executive Summary
To deliver the Scottish Executive's vision of safer communities, public services need to develop and maintain effective, user-focused and inclusive partnership frameworks for service provision. Intelligence and information sharing is one of the key ways in which individual agencies must combine with others to do just that, and so achieve the joined-up services which can improve the lives of everyone living and working in Scotland. The converse is also true: there is a growing awareness across the public sector that inefficient processes and procedures in intelligence and information sharing can have serious consequences, as highlighted by reviews and inquiries over at least two decades.
The importance of this theme is reflected in current developments at national level, where a number of initiatives and legislative changes are being introduced to address at least some of the need.
This report has examined the existing position of intelligence and information sharing, both within the police service in Scotland and between the service and its principal partner agencies, against the fertile landscape of these national developments. While the recommendations are directed at the police service, some suggestions are also made for principal partners in an effort to enhance intelligence and information sharing arrangements across agencies.
Nowhere is this need more apparent than in the high risk areas involving the protection of children and vulnerable adults. Though here the requirement for quicker identification and relevant information sharing is paramount, some practitioners need to retain control over this information. The progress already made by the 'Getting It Right For Every Child' agenda must be commended for pointing out ways in which one agency's interest in a child can be 'flagged up' to other agencies. It is disappointing that, at the time of writing, proposals to impose a duty upon organisations to share information for the purposes of child protection are likely to be dropped from the legislative programme. However, HMIC believes that there are even greater gains to be made by overcoming well-intentioned reluctance to share lower-level information at an earlier stage. No public service or public servant can know everything and so processes and procedures within and between organisations need to make information sharing easier and safer, not a matter of guesswork or exception. The Inspectorate recommends that practical possibilities which have not yet been considered, but which could offer significant progress here, are given some thought. These should amount to a means of maintaining client/patient/victim confidentiality for the most sensitive information, right up to the point at which the need to share becomes obvious.
One of the important pieces of work currently being undertaken at national level is being led by the Scottish Executive. It seeks to establish common data standards through the work of the National Data Sharing Forum and local data sharing partnerships. This presents the prospect of a standardised method of gathering, storing and sharing intelligence and information for all public service providers.
Throughout the inspection HMIC found many examples of good practice being applied by the police in the field of intelligence and information sharing. However it is felt that if the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland ( ACPOS) were to adopt a strategic overview and corporate approach, this would help to ensure that each of its business areas takes cognisance of the Scottish Executive strategic vision for intelligence and information sharing in the public sector. This approach could be further strengthened by each Scottish force and the Scottish Police Services Authority producing and publishing an intelligence and information sharing strategy that defines organisational structures and management responsibilities.
HMIC acknowledges that the development of information communications technology ( ICT) in the police service in Scotland over the last three decades has been challenging and difficult at times. A number of different and unconnected systems have been introduced throughout the country. However, within the last year ACPOS and the Scottish Executive have embarked upon a new approach to business change, specifically focusing on the way ICT development is managed and integrated in the police service. HMIC strongly supports the positive steps taken by ACPOS towards ICT convergence and future integrated development. Indeed HMIC believes that the Scottish Executive's promotion of enhanced ICT information sharing, through its 'Getting It Right For Every Child' ( GIRFEC) agenda and the National Data Sharing Forum, should be incorporated into the ACPOS vision for Information Communications Technology development.
This inspection has revealed that, across the public sector, intelligence and information sharing has been partly restricted by misinterpretation of the Data Protection Act 1998 as an inhibiting piece of legislation. HMIC proposes that there is a need to understand and promote the Data Protection Act as enabling legislation which encourages information sharing. One of the changes which could contribute to that change of outlook would be to re-align the data protection function/expertise within forces from an administrative to an operational role, in order to encourage a more pragmatic approach to intelligence and information sharing. In addition, an improved programme of targeted training is required to assist in delivering an enabling ethos in support of front end service provision.
HMIC believes that the opportunities which exist at national level to add value to information sharing between partner agencies, should also be grasped in order to achieve efficiencies in working practices. A significant step in that direction might be achieved by reviewing the role of chief constables as data controllers of Scottish Criminal Record Office ( SCRO) databases, and by allowing specialist reporting agencies ( SRAs) and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service ( COPFS) greater access to the Criminal History System ( CHS). HMIC acknowledges that this is a departure from the traditional police view of owning and managing intelligence and information. However, most police leaders today appear to accept that meaningful progress can only be achieved by acknowledging that many challenges within the criminal justice system are shared and require shared solutions for the benefit of all.
HMIC commends the use of the National Intelligence Model ( NIM) as the business model for policing in Scotland. This inspection has identified that adoption of the NIM by partner agencies, such as the Scottish Prison Service ( SPS), has delivered tangible benefits to both organisations and the wider public. HMIC believes that greater information and intelligence sharing between all public services requires a common framework and language. The National Intelligence Model has proved its adaptability and usefulness beyond policing and HMIC proposes that this model be extended to all relevant public services.
Much has been accomplished in improving intelligence and information sharing within and outwith policing. But for any further meaningful progress to be achieved the Scottish Executive, ACPOS and its partners need to build on existing strong relationships and work together to a common plan aimed at agreed outcomes.