Lost records need to be found, says senior West Midlands Police officer

Around 400,000 records were lost from the Police National Computer (PNC) this week, the majority of which are believed to relate to people who have been arrested but not charged.

West Midlands Police Chief Constable Dave Thompson said the case of child killer Ian Huntley showed why it was “quite important” that records were recovered as soon as possible.

Huntley had been accused of rape and sexual assaults before he murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, but as he had not been charged no information was passed on, meaning was able to get a job working in a school.

As a result of the case rules were tightened, so that everyone working with children must have a CRB check which checks out whether somebody had ever been associated with these types of crime.

Mr Thompson said: “One of the reasons for retaining the data is to assist with the Disclosure and Barring Vetting arrangements that the police service provide to occupations or groups that work with vulnerable people.

“We clearly will have people who have been arrested for some serious offences which might not actually result in a conviction but actually may indicate considerable levels of concern we wouldn’t want working with vulnerable people and that’s largely the reason why these arrangements exist so it is quite important that we actually see what we can recover from what has been deleted.”