R7 Response Accepted Self-assessed

Court results PNC transfer

Recommendation

The transfer of responsibility for inputting court results onto the PNC should be reaffirmed by the Court Service and the Home Office and, if possible, accelerated ahead of the 2006 target. At the least, that deadline must be met.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
While a parliamentary debate in February 2007 noted significant delays in transferring responsibility for inputting court results onto the PNC, with the Metropolitan Police taking 185 days for 75% of results against a 10-day target (Gov.uk progress, 2007-02-07), the transfer was substantially completed by January 2018 through HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) reforms (Gov.uk progress, 2018-01-01). Court results are now routinely uploaded to the PNC via integrated criminal justice systems.
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 2018

Transfer of responsibility for inputting court results onto the PNC substantially completed through HMCTS reforms. Court results now routinely uploaded to PNC via integrated criminal justice systems.

Home Office Parliamentary Answer
07 Feb 2007

Parliamentary debate noted significant delays in transferring responsibility for inputting court results onto the PNC. Metropolitan Police took 185 days for 75% of court results inputting against a 10-day target.

Source
Report The Bichard Inquiry Report 22 Jun 2004
Responsible Bodies
Home Office Primary
Recommendation age 21.8 yrs
Last formal update 3004 days ago