The PND, due to be launched later this year, will deliver the primary recommendation of Sir Michael Bichard's inquiry into the murders of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham in 2002. It will for the first time allow forces across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to share, access and search existing local intelligence and operational information on a national basis. The statutory Code of Practice will promote consistent and lawful use of the PND across the Police Service and is one of a series of measures to guard against misuse of the new system, sitting alongside rigorous access controls and robust individual user security checks. The PND will deliver benefits to public protection and policing in three key areas: protecting children and vulnerable people, reducing the risk of terrorist activity and disrupting and preventing major, serious and organised crime. Deputy Chief Constable Nick Gargan, Deputy Chief Executive of the NPIA and chair of ACPO's Intelligence Portfolio, said: "I am in no doubt that every investigator and every neighbourhood team in the UK will benefit at some point from the PND, bringing timely information, the full intelligence picture and a real boost to investigations at an early stage. "Protecting the information shared on the PND is very important. The NPIA is the guardian of this information and we need to make sure we deserve the trust being placed in us. Users in forces also need to take their responsibilities very seriously and maintain the highest professional standards." The Code of Practice has been subject to public consultation and has been approved by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). Home Office Minister for Identity, Meg Hillier MP, said: "When the PND is delivered later this year it will provide forces with a powerful new tool to fight crime and protect the most vulnerable in society. But it is vital that forces use this new information-sharing capability in a consistent and lawful way and for policing purposes only. The Code of Practice will enshrine these principles across the Police Service." Read the Code of Practice Notes to Editors 1. The PND forms part of the NPIA's IMPACT Programme, established in 2005 to deliver a substantial element of the Government's response to the Bichard Inquiry. An IT-enabled business change programme, it aims to improve the ability of the police service to manage and share intelligence and other operational information, to prevent and detect crime and make communities safer, with a focus on protective services. 4. Access to the PND will be limited to certain roles within forces, and user licenses given only to named individuals using specialist access management equipment, and only after rigorous security checks on the individual. All information will be shared over a secure and confidential network, and viewed in a confidential environment, and only at a limited number of computer terminals per force. All access and use will be logged automatically and subject to audit. Data will also be subject to handling codes from the force which owns the information, dictating how intelligence should be handled, its sensitivity and any restrictions on use. 5. Consultation on the Code of Practice ran from 9 November 2009 - 1 February 2010. 6. The Code can be found at: http://www.npia.police.uk 7. For more information contact the NPIA press office on 020 7147 8308/ 8424/ 8297 / 8310.
Read more about the IMPACT Programme and the Police National Database
2. Since 2005, it has delivered the IMPACT Nominal Index (INI), an interim information-sharing system which allows forces to see instantly if information on a suspect is held by another force. An enquiry must be then made to the force in question to find out what that information is. The PND will allow this information to be shared instantly, which is why restricting access and use, and safeguarding the dissemination of the information a search returns are vital.
3. Forces will start to load data onto the PND in May 2010 and will start to use the new system in the autumn.
