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Police Enquiries
For further information during office hours contact the Missing Persons Bureau (answerphone available out of office hours)

Missing Persons Bureau

+44 (0) 1256 602979

Information for Police

Notifying the NPIA Missing Persons Bureau

  • Send all reports of persons missing for 72 hours* to the MPB, or sooner if the officer in charge thinks that the case warrants urgent attention.
  • If subject is a foreign national notify the Bureau immediately.
  • If subject is a UK resident missing abroad notify the Bureau immediately.
  • Send all reports of unidentified bodies or persons to the Bureau within 48 hours of being found.

*For forces that have adopted the Code of Practice

Submitting Case Details


Please submit comprehensive details of the case to us:

Forms:

The above forms are available to police only by clicking on the relevant document above. Alternatively, if you are unable to download these, please contact the Missing Persons Bureau and we will e-mail the relevant form to you. These are also available on our Genesis website where you will also find other useful publications relating to missing persons.

Photographs and dental records, where available, should be forwarded to the NPIA MPB as soon as possible after notification.

Additional information that comes to light after notification should also be forwarded to the MPB. Forces should ensure there is an appropriate reference on the cover sheet.


To access the Guidance on the Management Recording and Investigation of Missing Persons (2005) and it's update (2007) produced on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers, follow the links below:

Guidance on the Management Recording and Investigation of Missing Persons 2005

Update to Guidance of Missing Persons 2007

Code of Practice:

The new Code of Practice was launched on 1st April 2009 having been approved by the ACPO cabinet and Parliament. The Code of Practice  means it is now a statutory requirement for police forces to forward data on missing and unidentified persons, bodies and body parts to the Bureau.

The compliance date for police forces are as follows :

  • 1st April 2009 - for forces using COMPACT case management system
  • 1st September 2009 - for forces using other IT systems
  • 1st April 2010 - for forces with no IT system for missing persons

Key changes to previous practices :

  • Timescales for submission of notifications for those persons still missing 72 hours after being reported are to be submitted within 84 hours, regardless of risk.
  • All unidentified persons/bodies and body parts, to be submitted within 48 hours
  • A fuller data set than has previously been sent to the Missing People charity, is required. See the existing ACPO Guidance (2005) on Missing Persons shown above. Interim guidance will be published here soon.
  • Format for electronic data exchange - this will be according to a force's current IT system. The aim is to make a direct transfer from a force system onto the Bureau's database (Hermes) using an xml schema. It is also intended to use the forthcoming PND schema to mitigate the need for future changes.
  • Forces are no longer required to send data to the Missing People charity under the National Protocol Agreement. The Bureau will share data with the charity on a case-by-case basis.

Quarterly Returns:

The quarterly return is due for all forces, even for those who will not be complying with the other parts of the Code of Practice until 1st April 2010. Detailed guidance on completing the quarterly return can be obtained from us via e-mail and has already been circulated to all Single Points of Contacts (SPoCs).

The timetable for quarterly returns data submission each year is :

 Quarter  Deadline
 1st April - 30th June  21st July
 1st July - 30th September  21st October
 1st October - 31st December  21st January
 1st January - 31st March  21st April