DM-23 Response Accepted

Retain documents in digitised form

Recommendation

It is recommended that, whenever a major incident remains under investigation or inquiry, documents should be retained in digitised form, subject to appropriate security measures and made available to those who subsequently and justifiably require access to them.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
Government response: Accepted. No public evidence of delivery has been found.
Sources
Government response (2023-06-22): Accepted Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-daniel-morgan-report/government-response-to-the-report-of-the-daniel-morgan-independent-panel Text: One of the principles around which the Code is built is transparency, which includes a statement that 'Chief officers must ensure that, where appropriate, their force is transparent with the public about the nature and type of records and information they hold, and how and why their information is b Progress update (2023-06-22): In Progress Status as of Government Response (June 2023): In Progress Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-daniel-morgan-report
How was this evidence gathered?
Evidence searched by baseline-data-v1 on 26 May 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
External sources searched: www.gov.uk
This recommendation applies across many organisations. The evidence above reflects central policy activity; adoption in individual organisations may vary.
Jurisdiction
England
Section Reference
Volume 1
Response
Accepted
Accepted Home Office
22 Jun 2023

One of the principles around which the Code is built is transparency, which includes a statement that 'Chief officers must ensure that, where appropriate, their force is transparent with the public about the nature and type of records and information they hold, and how and why their information is being processed'. In terms of accessibility the Code states 'Chief officers should ensure that systems are in place that make it easy to understand what information the force holds. The information should be stored in a way that ensures its efficient retrieval'. Certain police records are archived for their historical value and enduring public interest, for example those involved in major investigations such as a murder. Chief officers should ensure their force has systems and processes in place to identify records that meet the criteria for permanent preservation.

Read Full Response
Source
Inquiry Daniel Morgan Panel
Report The Report of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel 15 Jun 2021
View Source
Responsible Bodies
Home Office Primary
Themes & Tags
Police investigation management Corporate data issues Public sector digital capacity Records Management Digitisation Access
Recommendation age 5.0 yrs
Last formal update 1074 days ago