Soham inquiry criticises progress on police intelligence system

The inquiry set up to investigate policing failures that allowed Soham murderer Ian Huntley to slip through the net has expressed concern about the government's progress on the key recommendation for a national police intelligence computer system.

Inquiry chairman Sir Michael Bichard highlighted the "deeply shocking failures" in police intelligence and vetting procedures that had allowed Huntley to get a job as school caretaker. Huntley was eventually found guilty of the murders of pupils Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham.

In his initial report Bichard said the intelligence system should be a priority and that little progress had been made in implementing it for at least a decade.

But the six month progress report unveiled by Bichard today said there is still cause for concern particularly in the fact the Home Office timetable for the national intelligence system called Impact has slipped already.

The outline business case for the system was due this month but will not now be ready until September, although the Home Office maintains this has not had any knock-on effect on the final delivery date of 2007.

Bichard said: "Although there is a commitment to a police national IT intelligence system, central budget provision and a strategic high-level business case, its successful delivery is by no means guaranteed without a detailed business case and the delay in providing this is a concern to me."

Bichard's progress report also criticises police forces in England and Wales for the time it takes to input data onto the Police National Computer, with the average time taken to enter arrest or summons data now taking longer than it did six months ago.

The slow progress is leading some forces in England and Wales to look at using the technology behind the Scottish Intelligence Database, which is already up and running, as an interim measure until Impact is introduced in 2007.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke said in a statement: "The government is firmly committed to the protection for children and vulnerable adults in our society. As we said last year we owe it to the parents of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells to make substantial progress, as rapidly as possible, to ensure that the mistakes highlighted in the Bichard report are not repeated – that is what we shall continue driving through."