Written question asked by Baroness Harris of Richmond (Liberal Democrat), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Baroness Scotland of Asthal (Labour) on Wednesday, 19 April 2006.

Child Protection: Bichard Inquiry

Question: Whether the results of the technical evaluation of the cross-regional information project, outlined in the Home Office’s progress report of November 2005 on meeting the Bichard recommendations, will be incorporated into the business case for the Intelligence Management Prioritisation Analysis Co-ordination Tasking programme.

Answer: A preliminary evaluation of the Cross-Regional Information Sharing Project (CRISP) product was carried out during August and September 2005 using independent advisers. This evaluation found that the CRISP product was inherently capable of providing the basis for a cross-border information-sharing system, deployed more widely, subject to some further development. More detailed work on assessment, testing and stabilisation began in November 2005 and is continuing. The IMPACT programme business case identifies the CRISP product as a means of providing an interim local and cross-border information-sharing capability and confirms the value of continuing work to introduce a common national data standard, based on the CRISP data schema.

Secondary information