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More Than One Million Crimes Not On UK Police Database
More than one million crimes, including murders and rapes, are not on the Police National Computer because forces are refusing to pay a fee to obtain the criminal history of offenders.
A fifth of all crimes committed before 1995 are not on the national database because police must pay £100 to access each one from microfiche.
It means suspects could have slipped through the net or offenders have been handed softer sentences because the police and courts were unaware of their full criminal past.
The revelation has "profound implications" for public safety and puts police operations at risk, the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary warned.
And yet employers may be handed the details because bodies doing criminal record checks for employees are not charged.
A spokesman for the National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA), the body which runs the microfiche library, said there are now plans to reduce the fee by charging others.
The Police National Computer (PNC) was introduced in 1995 and has electronically recorded all offences since then.
The national database is used by all police officers to check a suspect or offender to see if they have any previous convictions.
Police also use it to draw up an individual's criminal history to pass on to the Crown Prosecution Service to inform a sentencing court.
Prior to 1995, offences were documented on microfiche and contained 5.2 million records at its height, many of which have since been transferred to the PNC.
However, since April last year forces have been charged £100 for every request to access such a file and requests fell by half to around 40 requests a month.
The HMIC report said police are no longer requesting details of early convictions because it costs too much money.
Some 1.2 million records, including murders, rapes, arson and GBH, have still not been entered on to the PNC.
It means police investigating an individual will not know their full past and courts may hand out a lesser sentence because they are unaware of a long previous history.
One HMIC source warned police investigating a rape and searching for suspects may not be aware of a convicted rapist in the area because their crime was historic and not on the system.
The report concluded: "Police forces believe this charge to be excessive and consequently are not requesting the details of pre-1995 convictions.
"Since the charge was introduced in April 2010 the number of 'fiche requests from forces has decreased. The inescapable conclusion is that police forces are not updating records with 'fiche-based convictions because the charge is considered to be excessive."
It added: "This can only impact adversely upon operational police efficiency and public safety."
It said it was a "matter is of concern" and that the issue "should be addressed as a matter of course with a view to reducing the unrealistic financial burden upon forces by the NPIA".
A joint statement from the NPIA and the Association of Chief Police Officers said: "Public safety is at the heart of the NPIA and the police service's work.
"Police officers will make a professional judgement about when they need to seek further information concerning an individual. "This would routinely include incidents where an arrest or charge has been made.
"Where the PNC does not hold a full record of a known individual, it will have a marker alerting police officers that information is held on microfiche.
"We have no evidence that police forces are not performing their public duty by requesting the details held on microfiche. We would find it hard to believe that any force would put public safety at risk for an interim charge of £100."
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