The Police Code of Practice for Missing Persons Data.
The new Code of Practice will be launched 1st April 2009. The Code is being presented to the ACPO cabinet and to Parliament for approval. Once it's published, it will become a statutory requirement to forward data on missing and unidentified persons, bodies and body parts to the Bureau.

Code compliance dates:
1st April 2009 - for forces using COMPACT case management system
1st September 2009 - for forces using other IT systems
1st April 2010 - for forces with no IT system for missing persons

There will be changes to existing practices:
The timescales for submission of notifications
.....- for those persons still missing 72 hours after being reported, to be submitted
...... within 84 hours, regardless of risk
.....- all unidentified persons/bodies and body parts, to be submitted within 48 hours
Fuller data - a fuller data set than has previously been sent to the Missing People charity, is required. See the interim guidance, to be published in mid-February 2009, and the existing ACPO Guidance (2005) on Missing Persons for details
Format for electronic data exchange - this will be according to a force's current IT system. The aim is to make a direct transfer from a force system onto the Bureau's (Hermes) using an xml schema. It's also intended to use the forthcoming PND schema to mitigate the need for future changes

From 1st April 2009, forces will no longer be required to send data to the Missing People charity under the National Protocol Agreement. The Bureau will share data with the charity on a case-by-case basis.

To be revised: the 2005 ACPO Guidance on Management, Recording and Investigation of Missing Persons

There's a need to update the current guidance provided to police forces by ACPO in 2005, based on work by the Bureau, police forces and other agencies.

Changes and updates are required in key areas including:
definitions,
risk assessment processes
cross border investigations
links to other recently published guidance

All sections of the guidance will be reviewed to ensure they're up-to-date. After extensive consultation, the new guidance document will be available by late autumn 2009 with interim guidance available mid-February 2009 to cover the new data provisions within the forthcoming Code of Practice.

New! UK-wide Child Abduction Alert Scheme

We're currently developing a new inter/national child abduction alert scheme. EU Council conclusions about child abduction were adopted on 28th November 2008 at Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels. Member States are invited to design and implement child abduction alert schemes. The UK scheme should cover Scotland and it's likely An Garda and PSNI will have an all-Ireland scheme.
                           
As part of this development work the Bureau participated in a joint child abduction exercise held in November 2008 in London and Paris in conjunction with the French Police and French Ministry of Justice. The exercise involved various Government and police agencies, who would normally contribute in a real-life alert procedure, participating in a fabricated child abduction scenario. The exercise was a success and was a useful test of communication and co-ordination between the two countries. It has increased our understanding of the issues, in particular:
mutual recognition of schemes
necessary authority levels for alert launches
ownership of investigation
relevant legal issues

The Bureau intends to bid for EU funding in early 2009 to assist in the development of the UK-wide alert scheme. Consultation with police forces will dictate whether the new inter/national system will replace or complement existing force Child Rescue Alert schemes.

Please note: changes to Missing People publicity services

After a review of how the charity, Missing People provide's publicity services, it's pleased to announce that effective from 1 February 2009, the following will replace the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
The weekly 'Offer of Services' process will cease
All Police Officers will be able to request that Missing People publicises a missing person case by submitting a request via email: police@missingpeople.org.uk
Cancellation of publicity requests can also be submitted by email: police@missingpeople.org.uk
Police can contact the charity on:
Tel: 0871 222 50 55 Email: police@missingpeople.org.uk
Occasionally, the charity may need to contact SPOCs (for example, where the name and contact details of a Police Officer are unknown) but it expects this to be much less frequent than at present.

As previously mentioned, the current arrangements under the ''National (Data Exchange) Protocol Agreement'' (NPA) cease at the end of March 2009, so please inform your IT System Administrators that emails containing data should not be sent to Missing People from 31 March 2009 as they will be returned as undeliverable.

Making the most of Missing People
We’re keen for the charity, Missing People to be used effectively. Their services include:
A national 24 hour helpline for people missing someone
A confidential sightings service, which enables sightings to be passed confidentially to the police
Support, advice, guidance and practical help to families of missing people
Publicity on TV, newspapers, radio and other media including Teletext and MoMedia plasma screens on buses
Specialist forensic artwork such as image enhancements, facial reconstructions and age progressions, to enable new publicity and identification
Runaway Helpline - a 24-hour confidential helpline, email and free-to-text service for runaways, offering help and advice to young people who have run away from home or care, or who have been forced to leave
Message Home - a unique confidential service offering help, advice and support to adults missing. Message Home is a 24 hour Freefone service that helps people contact their families or carers via a message or three-way call