Schengen Information System II
The Schengen Information System is currently in use within Europe helping law enforcement agencies work closer together to combat international crime and improve safety in the EU. Schengen Information System II (SIS II) is currently in development. The purpose of the Schengen Information System is to hold a number of specific alerts on people, vehicles and property. There are five types of alerts that law enforcement officers can either create or respond to depending on the circumstances and policy: When operational, officers will be able to perform PNC checks on foreign vehicles, persons and ID documents from within the Schengen countries. If that person or object has an alert placed against them, the officer will be notified and provided with information in order to take the correct initial action. Likewise, law enforcement officers in the other Schengen countries can check the details of a UK national, registered vehicle, passport or driving licence. It will be used by all Law Enforcement Officers who have access to PNC, which include the UK Police Service, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) and a number of other investigative organisations. Among other benefits, this joined-up approach to policing will help: The Schengen Aquis was brought about by five Member States (France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) allowing freedom and movement of persons through the lowering of borders in 1995 and the sharing of information on people and property of interest. This was incorporated into EU law in 1999. Since then, the legal basis has driven the use of SIS and any subsequent changes to the operation and membership of the system In May 2000 the UK Government application to join the Schengen Convention was approved by the EU. As part of this, the UK has agreed to implement the Schengen Information System (SIS) in the UK. The SIS allows participating countries to exchange information on wanted and missing people, and stolen and missing objects. It also allows for tracing of people for investigations. The system works through a set of alerts, based on Articles in the Convention. The UK will receive all alerts except those relating to refusal of access to the EU, which the UK is not signed up for. The SIS works on a 'hub and spoke' set up with a central server in Strasbourg sending and receiving data from national servers in each Member State. These servers are connected to the relevant national system, in the UK this is the Police National Computer (PNC). When a PNC user carries out a check on a person or object, a search will be undertaken on both databases and a hit/no hit result returned. It was rolled out as SISI for the original Member States, with an enhanced version, SISII for the accession countries including the UK and Ireland to join. See the Joint Supervisory Authority's website Data Protection on SISDescription
Via the Police National Computer (PNC), law enforcement officers will be able to share and use certain information with other police organisations from all Schengen countries. Use of this information will allow them to locate missing persons, criminals and stolen property from other countries - increasing our opportunities to deal with cross-border crime and extending their reach across Europe.Purpose
Who will be using it?
Benefits to the police service and others
Background
Further information
