[holding answer 24 April 2008]: In July 2006, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the Association of Police Authorities (APA) and the Home Office jointly published the Information Systems Strategy for the Police Service (ISS4PS). The strategy advises police forces and their authorities, as well as organisations that deliver national projects and services to the police service, to use the ISS4PS as a reference framework to plan information and communications technology services. This includes the development and implementation of systems in accordance with agreed standards, including those for software.
As part of the work it is doing to deliver a Police National Database, the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) IMPACT Programme is producing data quality standards to ensure that force information can be shared in a consistent and compatible manner. The responsibility for the management, and use of information within the police service, rests with the chief officer of the police force that owns the information. The Management of Police Information (MoPI) Statutory Code of Practice issued to forces in November 2005 sets out the key principles and processes for the management of police information. Guidance was issued on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers in 2006 to accompany the Code and the NPIA is helping forces implement that guidance in all forces by 2010 as part of the IMPACT programme.
[holding answer 24 April 2008]: The day to day management of a force is the responsibility of the chief constable and their police authority. Records of software products that are used in force to deal with (a) enforcement of licensing laws, (b) vehicle crime and (c) firearms crime are not held centrally.