Chapter 3 Leadership
3.1 Introduction
The previous Chapter described current opportunities across the public service for enhanced intelligence and information sharing through strategic and policy developments. These provide a number of challenges for the police service in Scotland and its key partners.
HMIC acknowledges the strategic lead that the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland ( ACPOS) has demonstrated to date in developing more efficient and effective methods of intelligence and information sharing within its individual business areas. However, HMIC believes that much of the effort has focused on intelligence management and less on information sharing. It is in this latter area that further progress can be achieved.
3.2 Criminal Justice
ACPOS involvement in information sharing is well illustrated by ongoing work in the relatively new Criminal Justice Business Area.
The establishment of a Warrants Action Team and the development of a shared warrants database will provide tangible benefits to all partner agencies. HMIC also notes ACPOS involvement in current reforms of the criminal justice system, through engagement with the Justice 1 Committee of the Scottish Parliament and particularly through participation in the National Criminal Justice Board.
3.3 Freedom of Information
During the inspection HMIC noted that ACPOS had appointed a Freedom of Information ( FOI) co-ordinator, on a pilot basis. HMIC looks forward to seeing an evaluation of the benefits of this encouraging development. This role should provide a strategic oversight and corporate view, promoting national consistency in FOI issues across the police service in Scotland.
3.4 Sharing Health Records
Earlier in this report the issue of confidentiality with regard to health records was referred to briefly ( Chapter 2, page 23). HMIC is aware of the work undertaken by health and justice partners in this area and believes that the evolution of this work is of particular relevance.
These developments followed the murder of Rory Blackhall in West Lothian in 2005. In a statement to the Scottish Parliament regarding this case, the Lord Advocate said:
"Simon Harris admitted himself to St John's Hospital, Livingston in the early hours of 22nd August 2005, the day he was due to appear in court. He was discharged later that day. During the period he was in the hospital some of the nursing staff thought he may have been a person of interest to the police. They passed on that information on the 26th of August 2005. The delay appears to have been due in part to some uncertainty over the extent of their duty of confidentiality. It is unlikely that the information, even if it had been supplied earlier, would have changed the course of events but the uncertainty suggests that further clarification in this area is required."
Subsequently the Minister for Health and Community Care agreed that a short-life working group should be established to:
- examine the national guidance on information sharing between the NHS and the police, and the way it is applied across the agencies; and
- ensure that it provides clarity for staff who may have to make decisions which call for them to balance issues about patient confidentiality, public safety and the investigation of serious crime.
The short-life working group was chaired by Mr Andrew Macleod, Head of Patients and Quality Division, Scottish Executive Health Department, with representation from the NHS, clinical professions, the Crown Office and ACPOS. Its recommendations are currently being taken forward by the Executive, ACPOS and other relevant interests.
The key recommendations of the Group were as follows:
- National guidance for information sharing between the NHS and the Police should be reviewed and updated.
- The NHS Code of Practice on Protecting Patient Confidentiality should be revised to reflect the Group's recommendations.
- NHS Boards should establish an Information Sharing Partnership Group, involving Police, Procurator Fiscal Service and other key partners (for example, local authorities). This group should do the following: develop and implement a local information sharing procedure based on the revised national guidance; establish arrangements for ensuring that senior NHS staff have round-the-clock access to senior police staff when required to balance issues of patient confidentiality, public safety and the investigation of serious crime; develop arrangements to ensure the safety of NHS staff who make decisions to share information; and oversee multi-agency education and joint training arrangements.
- Police forces and NHS Boards should agree arrangements to facilitate liaison and data sharing - including two-way secondments.
- An inter-agency information and training programme should be developed to support NHS, Police and Procurator Fiscal staff - which may include 'easy-to-read' posters, on-line interactive programmes and an awareness-raising DVD.
As a result of further discussion following the Group's report, it has been agreed that the responsibility for ensuring effective local arrangements between the NHS and the police, and for developing local processes, should rest with the Local Data Sharing Partnerships discussed earlier in this report. This will ensure close co-ordination with other developments in improved information sharing, including the GIRFEC agenda.
The Scottish Executive Health Department, in discussion with ACPOS, has drafted a revised protocol on information sharing between the NHS and the police. Consultation on this within the NHS and with other key interested parties is planned for the near future.
HMIC commends the Scottish Executive on the progress being made to improve information sharing arrangements with the NHS. It is important to ensure that information is effectively shared where there is a clear public interest and benefit to public safety in doing so. Sometimes this will require difficult decisions to be made in terms of striking a balance between protecting individual privacy and the public interest; strong working relationships and arrangements at a senior level between the NHS and the police will be critical to achieving a shared and agreed approach. It will also be important to establish strong links between the various national improvement initiatives underway for information sharing, so that 'user' benefit is maximised and opportunities are not lost.
3.5 Scottish Prison Service
During the inspection HMIC found a great deal of evidence of improved intelligence sharing with partners, including the Scottish Prison Service ( SPS), local authorities and the United Kingdom Immigration Service ( UKIS) at both regional and national level.
HMIC considers that some of the ongoing work with the Scottish Prison Service provides an excellent example of the promotion of intelligence and information sharing between the police service in Scotland and key partner agencies.
While the Inspectorate acknowledges the valuable local arrangements in place between a number of Scottish forces and the prison establishments situated within their geographic boundaries, of particular note is the work being progressed by Grampian Police and Her Majesty's Prison ( HMP) Aberdeen.
CASE STUDY - Scottish Prison Service |
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Following significant research and consultation between Grampian Police, the Scottish Prison Service and HMP Aberdeen, a Grampian police officer was appointed as a dedicated Prison Liaison Officer ( PLO) as part of an initial pilot project which began on 4 April 2005. The role of the PLO is primarily to ensure the effective exchange of intelligence and information which may benefit both agencies. Any intelligence or information exchanged between the two services must be treated confidentially and take cognisance of the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. Matters of a sensitive nature, including issues such as surveillance and interception, are governed by the provisions of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers 2000, Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) 2000 and Part III of the Police Act 1997. It was agreed from the outset that both organisations would independently evaluate the project after six months. Some of the key points identified through the evaluations are as follows: - Significant improvement in the intelligence flow between the two organisations, which has helped to reduce intelligence gaps in ongoing operations at National Intelligence Model ( NIM) level 1 - local issues and level 2 - cross-border issues.
- Development of liaison and information sharing between the PLO and the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency ( SCDEA), to reduce intelligence gaps in relation to NIM level 3 - serious and organised crime.
- Implementation of a NIM compliant tasking and co-ordinating structure within Aberdeen Prison.
- The introduction of a standard '5x5x5' intelligence management system ( Chapter 4, page 54) and an Intelligence source register within Aberdeen Prison to facilitate robust submission and source protection processes and meet best practice in this area.
- The ability to provide enhanced risk assessments both for prison establishments prior to admissions and for Scottish police forces in advance of prisoner releases.
Both services have identified clear business benefits from this project, which ACPOS and the Scottish Prison Service are currently developing at a national level. Since adopting the NIM process, the Scottish Prison Service now contributes to the Scottish national strategic assessment. In addition, a police officer will be seconded to the National Intelligence Bureau of the Scottish Prison Service, where a Scottish Intelligence Database terminal will be installed in an effort to promote intelligence and information sharing on a national basis. |
HMIC recognises that there is considerable potential for a greater flow of criminal intelligence between prisons and the police for the purpose of preventing and detecting crime, and promoting safety; similarly, it recognises that intelligence flowing in the other direction can help with prison safety and encourage future crime preventing intelligence. The Inspectorate also appreciates that one means of addressing this is to locate police staff in prisons as dedicated liaison officers. However other points to bear in mind include human rights and ethical issues, as well as the fact that intelligence from individual prisons will be of varying value to the police forces in which those establishments are located (e.g. the Women's Prison at Corntonvale houses prisoners from well beyond the boundaries of Central Scotland Police). It is therefore necessary that ACPOS consider how best to improve the intelligence flow without incurring disproportionate cost, and thereafter liaise with the Scottish Prison Service to achieve this.
RECOMMENDATION 5 |
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HMIC recommends that ACPOS consider how to improve the two-way flow of intelligence between the police and the prison service. |
3.6 Management of Police Intelligence
This inspection has confirmed that throughout all eight Scottish forces and the SCDEA there is clear and robust leadership in the management of police intelligence.
ACPOS firmly supports the National Intelligence Model ( NIM), described in the previous Chapter, as one of the key business processes for policing within Scotland. HMIC has found that at strategic, tactical and operational levels there is an understanding of the tasking and co-ordinating processes and a realisation of how effective a tool the NIM has become in defining and delivering service to meet specified demand and need.
The NIM framework allows forces to share intelligence with partner organisations in confidence, and provides clear examples of the strategic lead being given by the executive members of each force. The model contains unambiguous roles, responsibilities and common themes that can be incorporated into improving performance in joined-up areas of business. ( NIM policy Chapter 2, page 23)
3.7 Management of Police Information
In several forces, executive members regularly chair regional community partnerships whose aim is to deliver joint services across organisational boundaries, and tackle shared problems. To achieve their goals, protocols for intelligence and information sharing have been developed at strategic level. However, there is some feeling that, although these protocols exist, their effectiveness in delivering the joined-up services for which they were designed can be limited. One of the factors contributing to this shortfall is the lack of an efficient police information management structure.
HMIC recognises the requirement for each force to ensure that all the information it controls is managed effectively and that information management policies and strategies are embedded into its organisational structures. Police forces are data-rich organisations. Nevertheless all data, whether information or intelligence, must be properly managed before it can be used effectively.
HMIC believes that all police information should be treated as a corporate resource. Therefore, information must be collated, recorded and evaluated in a consistent manner across organisational and force boundaries. Failure to meet or even apply these standards is likely to result in unnecessarily over-complicating information sharing both within the police service and with key partners.
HMIC acknowledges ACPOS' decision to endorse and circulate a Scottish version of the Management of Police Information ( MOPI) guidance manual (referred to in Chapter 2, page 27). The MOPI was developed by the Association of Chief Police Officers in England and Wales ( ACPO) as a direct response to recommendations in the Bichard enquiry on the need for a code of practice governing the management of Police information.
The Scottish version of the MOPI will confirm that the management of police information is an organisational function for each force and that every force needs to be the guardian of the information it stores. This will require a more structured approach to considering information management than there has been until now. Ensuring that a corporate approach to managing all police information is undertaken, both within and between police forces and functions, will enable the service to share data consistently and effectively with partner agencies.
Effective leadership should ensure that all forces have information and intelligence sharing strategies, influenced by the ACPOS and Scottish Executive visions for data sharing, which share core elements such as: the aims of information and intelligence sharing within the force and with other police organisations, and how the force will pursue the idea of 'information push' (see Chapter 5); the aims of data sharing with generic and specific external organisations; organisational structures which delegate management responsibilities for information and intelligence sharing throughout the organisation; and how the force will promote and support sharing, and monitor the effectiveness of its strategy.
RECOMMENDATION 6 |
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HMIC recommends that each force produce and publish an intelligence and information sharing strategy which contains the core elements suggested within this report. |
3.8 Development of Intelligence and Information Sharing
HMIC recognises the developments being progressed by ACPOS and advocates that individual forces plan effectively to make the most of opportunities presented by implementation of the MOPI and enhanced information sharing with partner organisations, as previously described in this Chapter.
The very nature of the actions embarked upon by ACPOS and executive members of individual forces demonstrates the valuable work being done within individual business areas to improve intelligence and information sharing. However, HMIC is concerned that the diversity of work currently being undertaken is not supported by a structure of overarching governance.
Improvements in information sharing cannot be achieved in isolation. It must be acknowledged that this is one of the key themes within the wider public reform programme and that an appropriate strategic response is required.
It is important that the variety of good work taking place can be captured and developed within a common strategic approach. This will be fundamental to the contribution which policing can make to wider information sharing in the public sector. HMIC believes that ACPOS is best placed to provide this strategic oversight.
RECOMMENDATION 7 |
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HMIC recommends that ACPOS provide a strategic overview for developing information sharing within each of its business areas, in order to promote a corporate approach in accordance with the Scottish Executive's vision for data sharing across the public sector. |
3.9 National and Local Data Sharing Fora
HMIC believes that the advancement of national and local data sharing fora presents a significant opportunity for developing improved intelligence and information sharing between the police service and partner organisations .
A National Data Sharing Forum has been established under the chairmanship of the Minister for Finance and Public Sector Reform, with the intention of moving towards National Data Standards. The purpose of the Forum is to collaborate with local partners to develop coherent and integrated approaches to data sharing at the national level (referred to in Chapter 2, page 15).
National data standards are necessary to ensure that when two separate databases containing information are joined together, or searched simultaneously, the data is compatible and comparable. For example:
Adult A is recorded on all systems as John SMITH, not Smith John or John Smith.
Failure to record all data in a uniform manner creates the potential for information to be lost.
The structure will include 14 local data sharing partnerships, based on the existing Health Board areas. Membership will come from the principal partners: local government, NHS, police and other agencies. Each will plan for electronic data sharing in the partnership area within the national policy priorities and frameworks. They will also implement national data and technical standards using the eCare technical framework to allow partners who hitherto could not converse electronically, to communicate.
The intention is for each partnership to have a multi-agency store, or hub, where a unique biographical record will be used to identify individuals whose records are held. Messages containing information about the individuals concerned will then be sent between the partner agencies via this multi-agency store or hub.
The two main priorities for Local Data Sharing Partnerships established for 2006-2007 are:
- to complete the roll out of single shared assessment for all adult care groups; and
- to implement information sharing for child protection.
HMIC is aware of work currently underway to identify business processes and any existing best practice. The intention is that any messages generated as a result of the Getting It Right For Every Child ( GIRFEC) initiative, mentioned in Chapter 2 of this report, could be passed through the multi-agency store as described above. It also follows that any decision by the Scottish Executive to pursue recommendations 2A and 2B of this report could be supported by the concept of a multi-agency store or hub.
SUGGESTION 2 |
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To prevent potential duplication of work and to ensure a co-ordinated approach, HMIC suggests that ACPOS recognise the existing data standards in use across the criminal justice community when seeking to introduce national standards for police data. |
The drive towards improved national and local data sharing requires the police service to provide robust leadership at national level, through ACPOS, and at local level through individual forces. However the response must be corporate, to ensure that all development opportunities across all business areas are realised. This is further complicated by the need to take account of the way partners are approaching this area, and the pace of progress in other agencies, the voluntary sector and with private sector partners.
It is clear that strong strategic leadership is necessary to demonstrate commitment, clarify direction and discourage parochialism in tackling information sharing. The liaison and co-ordinating role of ACPOS is crucial in developing wider and better information sharing, and HMIC strongly encourages its members to accept a leadership role in this important work.