HMIC Inspection Methodologies
PNC Methodology
Currently, the PNC Compliance Team is carrying out a focused PNC inspection in all forces in England, Wales and Scotland and this will be completed by August 2006.
However, a risk assessment is carried out to determine which of the remaining forces in England and Wales should be inspected first. Scotland has a set timetable to coincide with primary inspections and therefore a risk assessment is not carried out.
Forces are inspected against a set of inspection protocols which have been developed under the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM);
To assist the team in preparing for the inspection, specific pre-read information is requested from the force, approximately 4 weeks before the team actually carryout the inspection.
During the inspection, interviews are held with all key personnel, including Chief Officers, PNC Liaison Officers, PNC Managers, Area Commanders, Data Protection Officers, PNC inputters and operational staff.
At the end of the inspection verbal feed back is given to the force by the team, subsequently, about 6 weeks afterwards, a formal report is sent with findings and recommendations.
An Action Plan is then requested to be sent to the team giving action “managers” and timescales for each of the recommendations in the report. This is then reviewed and an update requested periodically by the team.
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The PNC Inspection reports
are now available in the 'Inspectorate Reports' section of the HMIC Website.
