Soham inquiry changes 'not made'

Former caretaker Ian Huntley was jailed for life for the Soham murders

The government has been criticised for failing to implement almost a third of the recommendations on police forces sharing data after the Soham murders.

Sir Ian Magee, who is examining the collection of data on criminals, said it was a "matter of concern".

He said the failure to set up a key system - a single intelligence database for police in England and Wales - meant "at least some of the risks" remained.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith acknowledged there was "more to do".

The Bichard Inquiry made its recommendations four years ago after the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

They were killed by school caretaker Ian Huntley in Soham, Cambridgeshire.

'One-stop shop'

The inquiry made 31 recommendations to try to improve the way police shared information on potentially dangerous individuals, but Sir Ian said nine were still outstanding.

Key among those was the PND (police national database) which was meant to be a one-stop shop for information for all forces in England and Wales.

Also yet to be implemented is a system for electronically transmitting court data onto the existing police national computer.

We have made great strides in recent years in the way we collect, share and use information about criminals Home Secretary Jacqui Smith

"The delay in full implementation means that we are still living with at least some of the risks," Sir Ian said.

"Ministers believe they have taken action to remove the risk by accepting the recommendation and launching the programme to implement it.

"Furthermore, front-line police officers see little or no tangible action and may conclude therefore that this cannot be a priority."

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said great strides had been made in the collection, sharing and use of information about criminals, "but there is more to do and I am committed to pressing forward with further improvements".

'Poor reputation abroad'

Sir Ian was also highly critical of the way Britain handles information about crimes committed overseas.

His report revealed that forces in the UK make just 20 requests to international police agency Interpol each day for details about non-EU criminals, compared with more than 20,000 a day by French officers.

And he said Britain had a poor reputation elsewhere in the EU for the way in which it responded to requests for information from other countries.

Sir Ian also criticised the complexity of the systems used to handle data on criminals.

He said police in England and Wales held 70 million records split across more than 350 systems, and had 77 separate "watch lists" for criminal suspects.

Best friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were murdered in 2002

These multiple systems were "inefficient as well as unhelpful in minimising risk", he said, and some £300m could be saved if they were streamlined.

The home secretary said the government would produce an "action plan" in the autumn and would consult on one of Sir Ian's key recommendations - the creation of a Commission for Public Protection Information.

Huntley was found guilty of double murder in December 2003 and jailed for life.

After his conviction, it emerged that he had been accused of a series of sex crimes while living in Grimsby, but Humberside Police had failed to keep proper records of the allegations.

Meanwhile, officers from Cambridgeshire Police failed to ask Humberside for any information on Huntley when they vetted him for the job of school caretaker in Soham.

In his report, Sir Michael Bichard said there had been "very serious failings" in record keeping and communication between the two forces that meant a dangerous man like Huntley had "slipped through the net".

Sir Ian said that when he examined the situation again in early 2009, he expected real progress to have been made.