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Scottish Criminal Record Office
2000 Primary Inspection

6. Processes

The Management of all value-adding activities within the organisation.

Fingerprint Bureau

6.1 Following publication of the of the recommendations and suggestions in the Fingerprint Bureau primary inspection report on 29 August 2000 the ACPOS Project Management Team have been co-ordinating and assisting progress of the SCRO response to HMIC's recommendations and the CMRT findings. A chronology of events is described within this report's introduction. The CMRT response to the recommendations and suggestions is reproduced at Annexe 'A'. HMIC is satisfied that a structured programme is in place to address the recommendations and suggestions, that the task is being approached enthusiastically and vigorously and that much has been done to make progress. On 7 December 2000 the Bureau was accredited with the 'ISO 9002' standard.

6.2 HMIC Inspection of the Fingerprint Bureau published on 29 August 2000 was critical of a number of aspects of its efficiency and effectiveness. Much of the concern derived from a lack of resources, inappropriate working practices, the lengthy timescales to secure change and the clarity of responsibilities. A number of the issues giving rise to these concerns were outside the direct control of SCRO management.

6.3 The action since the HMIC Inspection has been positive and wide ranging. A number of points can be made to demonstrate improvement:

• The move to the new premises has provided a more obvious independence and a better working environment where procedures and processes can be more readily operated and monitored.
• The production and publication of the report by the ACPOS Review Group (see Annexe 'A') and the creation of a dedicated project group to take issues forward.
• The allocation of responsibilities and the creation of time scales to produce specific work to secure improvements.
• The independent checking of the fingerprint product (required by the Lord Advocate and announced in Parliament on 22 June 2000) has confirmed the quality and accuracy of the work of SCRO. Over 1,400 cases have been examined containing over 4,300 marks with in excess of 6,600 impressions, all of which have been verified. In view of the results of this verification process HMIC queries whether this is still appropriate and an effective use of resources.
• The strengthening of the SCRO management team by the introduction of key posts.
• The effort to recruit additional staff.
• The agreement of the SCRO Executive Committee to adopt a system of central management for the fingerprint service in Scotland.
• The appointment of a Head of the Scottish Fingerprint Service to develop and lead the system of centralised management.

6.4 HMIC is satisfied that the responses so far have been speedy and robust. There is a clear need for this process to be pursued with vigour and regular oversight to avoid any slide backward to the pre-inspection position. HMIC will re-visit the issues identified by the Inspection of the Fingerprint Bureau and this Inspection of the remainder SCRO at the Review Inspection in December 2001.

User Support Bureau

6.5 The need for the User Support Bureau was recognised in 1989 as part of the project to computerise the Criminal History System networked throughout the Scottish Forces. At this time SCRO's role within the Scottish Police Service was evolving at pace as was the need to provide support and guidance to the operational officers and end users of the various systems. From this the User Support Bureau (initially Administration Department) was established. Its role has expanded in line with the demands of the Service and the development of IT provision.

6.6 The purpose of the Bureau as it exists now is to provide a link between the facilities offered by SCRO and the client groups which it services. The Bureau's core functions are to provide authorised police users with access to the Criminal History System and Police National Computer via an Interface, the provision of advice and assistance via a 24 hour help desk facility, recording and search facilities on the national Stolen Property Database and criminal history information to authorised agencies in relation to their vetting processes. Tables 2 and 3 in the Results Section describe the levels of activity undertaken by the Bureau.

6.7 During the inspection User Support Bureau personnel expressed the view that forces are not maximising their use of the facilities afforded by the Criminal History System. Examination of the number of Criminal History System and Stolen Property Search transactions and the percentage share of transaction types illustrate that the numbers of searches are in decline (see Tables 3, 5 and 6 in the Results Section).

6.8 The Disclosure Unit within the Bureau processes criminal conviction disclosure enquiries from non-police agencies in terms of Scottish Office Home Department Police (CC) Circular No. 4/1989 in relation to prospective employees who may have opportunities for substantial access to children. The total number of disclosure enquiries dealt with by the Bureau has risen annually, and in 1999/00 had risen by nearly a quarter (23.3%) on the previous two year average. Details of the types of disclosure enquiries are described in Table 2 of the Results Section. SCRO have service level agreements which require disclosure enquiries to be processed within 10 working days of receipt by the Bureau. HMIC found that although Bureau personnel were aware of the amount of work in-hand no management information is routinely collated on the achievement of the turnaround target.

6.9 Although ownership of the data contained within the Criminal History System rests with the Scottish police forces the Bureau has a monitoring function to ensure the integrity of the system. This includes the prevention of unauthorised user access, deletion of information, compliance by forces of the procedures and protocols concerning the recording and the weeding of information. System security and integrity audits are conducted nightly by the Duty Sergeants monitoring data input and output, and transaction searches based on the record, terminal and user access. If a record is removed manually a print off is generated automatically and the Duty Sergeant seeks clarification from the force concerned.

6.10 Post implementation of Part V of the Police Act 1997 (see paragraph 5.9) the role of the Bureau will be transformed and an opportunity will be afforded to review the Bureau's function, staffing arrangements, and the role of the sergeants. At the time of the inspection the future role of the Bureau had not been crystallised and Bureau personnel expressed concern that they had not been provided with sufficient information about their futures. HMIC suggests that User Support Bureau personnel and all other staff be kept fully informed of likely changes to their employment status as a result of the implementation of Part V of the Police Act 1997.

6.11 HMIC is aware of a review of Scottish Police Record Offices initiated in August 2000 by the ACPOS Technical and Research Committee. The Review was not complete at the point of Inspection. This is a timely study given the importance of data accuracy for the Criminal History System as a whole. It is clear from the inspection of SCRO and forces that their interdependence could be enhanced by the greater routine exchange of management information.

Information Technology (IT) Bureau

6.12 A review of the Computer Section was initiated in November 1997. This was subsequently widened in November 1998 to include the Research & Development Section. The review concluded that the structure depicted below will provide a better structure to meet the present and future strategic needs of the Scottish forces and associated external agencies.

Figure 3 - IT Bureau Structure

6.13 At the time of the inspection the Applications Supervisor, Research and Development Supervisor, Communications Supervisor and Operations Supervisor posts were vacant and the process of recruitment to these posts was underway.

6.14 The IT Bureau exists to provide a service covering the following systems; Criminal History, PNC Interface, PHOENIX Interface, Automatic Fingerprint Recognition, Livescan, Stolen Property, SCRO office systems and local area network, and stolen MOT certificates. Also included are the data communications networks associated with these systems. The service relates to the support of, and enhancements to, existing systems and to the development of new facilities. Research is undertaken not only on behalf of SCRO but also the Scottish Police Service and other agencies, e.g. development work for the ISCJIS project and automated handwriting analysis systems.

6.15 IT Bureau performance is measured against system availability figures published in Annual Reports. System availability figures are shown in the results section in Figures 17, 18 and 19. Examination of the figures shows that the IT Bureau maintain an almost constant availability of the Criminal History, AFR and PNCI systems. The needs and requirements of customers are identified through liaison groups, committees and system change requests. Feedback is provided in a number of ways including, force liaison meetings, reviews of resources, performance measurement and staff meetings. Suggestions for improvements and shortfall in performance are analysed and changes made where appropriate. The IT Bureau have the capability to extract a myriad of performance information and it is vitally important that in addressing Recommendations 14, 15 and 16 (development of performance measures, maximisation of the crime prevention and detection potential of the Criminal History System and enhanced management information) cognisance is taken of this. Although forces are provided with individual terminal transaction histories HMIC (and SCRO) is not clear what the usefulness of this information is to the recipients and how it is used routinely to improve performance in forces.

6.16 HMIC noted that at the time of inspection an Information Security and Data Protection Handbook is being drafted to supplement the information in the SCRO Induction Pack. HMIC recognises the production of an Information and Security Data Protection Handbook as good practice. At the time of inspection SCRO were seeking authorisation for the new post of Information Security / Data Protection Officer.
The Livescan Manager currently assumes the role of information security officer and SCRO recognise that this situation is not desirable. HMIC did not find evidence of an IT security policy encompassing the ISCJIS Data Protection & Security Baseline Security Requirements.

6.17 HMIC found that the IT Bureau were not making use of project management methodology for all projects. HMIC suggests that the IT Bureau make greater use of project management methodology (shortened versions where appropriate). HMIC established that Bureau personnel complete a weekly summary of what work tasks they have been involved in but that no record is kept of staff time devoted to particular work activities and therefore no analysis of work activity. HMIC suggests that the IT Bureau implement a process to record and analyse the time devoted by personnel to work activities. This information can then be used to secure improvements.

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