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Data Entry

Answer

Efforts are made to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the prison service IT system data, as far as is practicable. Prison establishments who are responsible for the data input, are not, however, always in receipt of the necessary details, notably regarding offences. Where the offence data are incomplete we use the category "offence not recorded". These data are collected on a central computer database, called the Inmate Information System (IIS), and are used to produce the various analyses of receptions, discharges and time served in custody. Data input teams have a range of performance measures in place, agreed with clients and stake holders, covering time and quality for each type of transaction/process we deliver for them. A new IT system, Prison-NOMIS is being rolled out to public prison establishments over the period spring 2009 to summer 2010. Prison-NOMIS uses a combination of mandatory fields, drop-down lists and field-level validation to ensure that the data entered by users is as complete and accurate as possible. Free text fields, which often lead to errors in input, are avoided where possible. The Prison-NOMIS drop-down lists are populated using standard data sets which are either nationally recognised, such as the ISO list of country codes, or common across the criminal justice organisations—for example, we are now using the same offence codes as the police and the Court Service. Guidance is also given to users in the form of a Prison Service instruction which highlights the importance of data quality to the organisation.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

708 c86-7WA; 1474

Session

2008-09

Related items

Data Entry
Monday, 30 March 2009
Written questions
House of Lords

Data Entry
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Written questions
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Prisoners
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
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Subjects

Databases Data processing Prisoners Prisons Standards National offender management information system

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk