Understanding Information Sharing

Whilst the Crime & Disorder Act provides a power to disclose information between partners, it does not place a statutory duty on partners to do so, although Section 17 of the Act imposes a duty of partnership and requires Local and Police authorities (and Joint National Parks and the Broads Authorities) to do all that they reasonably can to reduce crime and disorder in their area (within restrictions imposed by law).

Partners should therefore exchange information, where this is relevant and necessary for any legitimate activity permitted under the Crime & Disorder Act, with the specific objective of reducing crime and disorder in their area.

Home Office scoping work indicated that whilst many partnerships are exchanging information routinely, in too many instances, partners have been unwilling or reluctant to do so. The Data Protection Act and other legislation is often cited as a barrier, when in the majority of cases, it should present no great difficulty at all.  Compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 will be of great benefit in regulating the flow of information and providing assistance with complying with the general rules of evidence.

The Home Office takes the view, that the overwhelming majority of information exchanges necessary to support practical local crime and disorder activities, will be possible, provided that a number of practical steps are undertaken to ensure full compliance with the law.

The enormous growth and continued development of software, and the use of databases, data sets and other information based systems provides a range of new opportunities for partnerships to better target criminal activity in their area. Used in conjunction with the other toolkits, better-planned and targeted interventions should enable partnerships to work more closely and effectively with each other and combine their resources to best effect.

Information Sharing for Crime reduction purposes is consistent with the ‘Modernising Government’ White Paper objective of providing ‘smarter knowledge’ management across government, enabling the public sector to harness its data and experience more effectively, and to work in new ways.

New technology and software offers substantial potential for increasing the ease with which data can be exchanged, cleaned, matched, stored and published. These advances will assist partnerships in complying with the Data Protection Act. They also facilitate better analysis of crime and disorder problems both now and in the future.

These objectives underscore the importance of compatible and joined-up information. The Prime Minister announced in 1997 that, by 2002, 25% of dealings with Government should be capable of being done by the public electronically.

It is proposed that 50% of dealings should be capable of electronic delivery by 2005 and 100% by 2008. Accordingly, agencies should seek to ensure that data held by members of the partnership is accurate and in a format, which can be transmitted, within the Government’s stated time-scales.