5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: April 2022 5.2 The Police National Database (PND) business case is currently being reviewed and refined by key stakeholders. The next steps on this business case are: • January 2022: Business Case approach was placed before a special meeting of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) Intelligence Portfolio on 12 January and secured NPCC endorsement for programme approach. Business case secured support of PND Programme Board on 19 January. • February 2022: Business case secured approval of Commercial Advisory Board (CAB) on 9th Feb, Business Design Authority on 9 February, and Technical Design Authority on 10 February. • March 2022: Business Case will go before the Home Office Finance Investment Committee (FIC) 10 March for final approval. 5.3 This business case envisages that PND will progress to its target transformational state through evolving the current capability, rather than replacement from scratch. It will transform via an interim state that addresses technical debt, replaces the underlying database, and moves to Cloud. This is deemed to be the most cost-effective solution, whilst balancing risk and time to deliver. This approach will ensure continuous availability for the police, ongoing delivery of enhanced PND capabilities including integration with NLEDP, technology debt is addressed whilst also future proofing the PND service. 5.4 This interim state will include improved Serious and Organised Crime analytics, increase the number of users from 12,000 to 20,000, and share information with National Firearms Licencing system. 5.5 This business case envisages that PND in the target state will be able to support federated searches within LEDS, providing police officers with the single system to access both services. 5.6 The PND programme will provide an update to the Committee in April on its high-level plans, key milestones, and budget once its business case is approved by the Home Office Financial Investment Committee (FIC) in March 2022. For financial year 2022-23 a further £6.5 million has been allocated to transform and sustain the PND.