R4 Response Accepted Self-assessed

PNC investment

Recommendation

Investment should be made available by Government to secure the PNC's medium and long-term future, given its importance to intelligence-led policing and to the criminal justice system as a whole. I note that PITO has begun this work.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
The government committed investment to secure the Police National Computer's (PNC) future, as confirmed in a parliamentary debate in February 2007 (Gov.uk progress, 2007-02-07). More recently, the PND 1.5 transformation programme was approved with a £639 million benefits case by January 2024, confirming ongoing government commitment to national police IT infrastructure and the PNC's continued operation as a core policing system (Gov.uk progress, 2024-01-01).
How was this assessed?
Assessed by gemini-2.5-flash on 18 Mar 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
External sources searched: www.gov.uk, hansard.parliament.uk, www.legislation.gov.uk
Jurisdiction
UK-wide
Response
Accepted
Accepted Home Office
22 Jun 2004

The Home Secretary made a statement to Parliament on 22 June 2004, the day the Bichard Inquiry Report was published, accepting all 31 recommendations in full. The government stated it was "in principle, accepting Sir Michael's main recommendations and will act on them immediately." Implementation led to the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and the creation of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (now the Disclosure and Barring Service). By February 2007, 21 of the 31 recommendations had been fully or substantially completed. See Hansard, 22 June 2004.

Read Full Response
Note: Government responded with a single statement accepting all 31 recommendations. Individual per-recommendation responses were not published separately.
Progress Timeline
Home Office states: Official Report
01 Jan 2024

PND 1.5 transformation programme approved with £639M benefits case, confirming ongoing government commitment to national police IT infrastructure. PNC remains fully operational as a core policing system.

Source
Home Office Parliamentary Answer
07 Feb 2007

Parliamentary debate confirmed government had committed investment to secure the PNC's future as part of Bichard implementation.

Source
Source
Inquiry Bichard Inquiry
Report The Bichard Inquiry Report 22 Jun 2004
View Source
Responsible Bodies
Home Office Primary
Themes & Tags
Police tech abuse response Police Vetting Inconsistencies Police Intelligence Pnc
Recommendation age 21.8 yrs
Last formal update 813 days ago