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E-mail: [Home Office request email] Website: www.homeoffice.gov.uk

[FOI #8800 email]

Mr John Brown

Reference: T8546/9 16 June 2009

Dear Mr Brown,

Thank you for your e-mail of 19 May in which you re-asked a number of questions under the Freedom of Information Act. These were:

In the European Council Decision on the exchange of information extracted from criminal records - Manual of Procedure (5459/09) - pages 100-103 relate to the UK Central Authority for the Exchange of Criminal Records (UKCA-ECR). I am making a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please would you provide the following information:

(a) what was the rationale for the Home Office agreeing to the nomination of ACPO Criminal Records Office (ACRO) to perform the role of the UKCA-ECR? (ACPO is a private limited company and not an official government/public body).

(b) Were Ministers aware of and briefed on the legal status of ACPO before agreeing to its nomination as the UKCA-ECR?

(c) Given that the Police National Computer is operated by NPIA (a public agency), why was it resolved to use ACRO rather than NPIA to be the UKCA-ECR?

(d) What are the estimated annual costs of the UKCA-ECR, how are these costs covered and which Ministry/Department is responsible for paying them?

(e) Is the provision of the UKCA-ECR service by ACRO undertaken under a contract and if so which Ministry/Department placed the contract?

I am sorry that we have not replied to your request before now. As I said myself in my reply of 1 April relating to case T4057/9 we could find no trace of having received the request set out above. I understand the possibility that in the past e-mails from What Do They Know, which are to an extent anonymised, may have been rejected by our computer systems as spam. Now that we are aware of this we have asked our IT supplier to ensure that such anonymised e-mails are not blocked in future.

The Home Office has considered your request to be one under the Freedom of Information Act.

(a) and (c) The decision that the UK Central Authority for the Exchange of Criminal Records should be a part of the ACPO Criminal Records Office was taken following a bidding process. The National Policing Improvement Agency did not exist and therefore did not bid at this time nor did its predecessor organisation PITO (Police Information Technology Organisation) choose to do so. As I have explained in a previous reply (case T3362/9, reply dated 20 February) each Chief Constable owns the information they put onto PNC for their force area. ACPO as a body represents all 44 individual forces in England & Wales and Northern Ireland, and therefore is the representative owner of all PNC records. The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) manages the PNC equipment and makes this information available, but does not own the actual data. ACRO has access to all PNC records for the policing work that it provides to forces and other agencies.

(b) Ministers were aware of the status of ACPO when they decided that the ACPO Criminal Records Office should house the UK Central Authority for the Exchange of Criminal Records, although the legal status was not specifically mentioned in documents that were sent to them.

(d)

2008/09 £495,000. Home Office paid £330,000, ACPO paid £165,000.

2009/10 Home Office has agreed to pay up to £330,000 and ACPO £165,000.There may also be additional contributions from the Scottish Government and the Northern Irish Office

The Home Office, in consultation with the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Office has responsibility for policy in relation to Council Decision 2005/876/JHA under which the UK Central Authority is designated. Funding of the UKCA is shared across the UK organisations that benefit from its services. .

(e) The provision of UKCA-ECR services is carried out by the ACPO Criminal Records Office. There is no formal contract. As with all Government grant expenditure the UKCA-ECR is required to show how money has been spent. This is set out in ACRO's Annual Report.

If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request by submitting your complaint within two months to the below address quoting reference 12089:

Information Rights Team
Information and Record Management Service
Home Office
4th Floor, Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Email: [email address]

During the independent review the department's handling of your information request will be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. Should you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you will have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.

Yours sincerely

Robert Butlin