ACPO Freedom of Information Request ... Free Movement of People and Criminal Records

ACPO
1st Floor,
10 Victoria Street,
London
SW1H 0NN

18th January 2007.

Dear Sir / Madam,

I would be grateful if you could confirm the following:

(i) Do you, and / or individual Police Forces, have a record of crimes committed in this country by EU Nationals? If so, how many EU Citizens convicted of crimes in this country have been convicted of criminal offences in another EU Member State and was this information readily available to the arresting Police Force?

(ii) Do you, and / or individual Police Forces have a record, or are you routinely supplied with information, of every sex offender or criminal released from prison in any one of the 26 other Member States of the European Union to enter into the Police data base?

(iii) Do you have a set of guidelines, or any policy documents available with regard to advising Police Forces as to how CRB or CIB checks can be performed in relation to EU citizens who, under the free movement of people, are legally entitled to live and work in this country whose details may be presented to a local Police force for checking by a prospective employer?

(iv) If there are no guidelines, and if EU workers cannot CRB be checked then has ACPO made the Home Office and the Minister aware of this? If so, could you please provide further details including dates and copies of any communications?

(v) If no checks can be performed, or checks would be dependent on information from other EU Member State records systems then it could be that unchecked persons could be / have been placed in positions of employment with vulnerable persons. Is ACPO aware and is anything been done to address this, or is it a case of checking only AFTER a crime has been committed and a suspect apprehended?

I would be grateful if these questions are not within ACPO's remit then you could advise as to the agency who would be able to provide further illumination.

As you will no doubt appreciate, the consequences of not adding 27,000 crimes committed by Britons abroad to the National Data Base is a serious one indeed, but there appears to be no consideration (or admission) of the fact that under the 'free movement of people' arising from various Treaty agreements, some 400m+ people can walk unchecked and unchallenged through passport control with the same status as a British citizen yet their criminal records remain anonymous to both officials at the point of entry and Police forces in the locality where they live and work.

I would appreciate a response as a matter of urgency.

Yours sincerely,


Neil Herron
12 Frederick Street
Sunderland
SR1 1NA

Tel. 0191 565 7143