asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is their assessment of the extent to which the implementation of the cross-regional information sharing project is stalling the final implementation of the IMPACT programme recommended by the Bichard inquiry. [HL258]

The cross-regional information sharing project (IMPACT CRISP) is an important step in the modular and incremental approach we are taking to the delivery of new information sharing services to the police and partner agencies. It will provide the police service with a new capability to access information held in other forces' local systems much more quickly than would otherwise have been possible. It will also assist in the delivery of the police national database (PND) by introducing a new common data schema, enabling forces to contribute their data for sharing and helping forces identify the business process changes they need to introduce in order to make the best use of the new information- sharing capabilities.