13. Police National Computer checks carried out on those who died

What was investigated?

The IOPC investigated:

The carrying out of Police National Computer checks on those who died and others to establish, if possible, which police force or police officer was responsible for this, the reasons why it was done, and whether it was justified.
 

What was found?

• The Police National Computer (PNC) checks carried out after the disaster were done using the original PNC, which was replaced by PNC2 in 1991. This meant that, unlike PNC2, there would have been no records in the system to show who had conducted the search or produced the printouts. 

• The IOPC has not been able to establish who carried out the PNC checks or wrote the accompanying summary. However, it has established that the handwriting on the summary did not belong to the solicitor who originally provided these documents to the HIP, or to his client, Supt Marshall.

• SYP standing orders from the time indicate that carrying out PNC checks on those who died would have been in line with procedure, so that records could be updated. However, in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster, it appears that the process followed was not in line with SYP guidance. 

• This was confirmed when in 2014 the IOPC conducted PNC checks on those who died in the disaster and found that records relating to nine of those who died had not been removed, as they should have been. This has since been rectified, and the National Policing Lead for Information Management apologised to the families of those who died for the oversight. 

• WMP conducted Criminal Records Office (CRO) checks on 94 of those who died. The IOPC has not found any specific explanation for why or when this was done, nor any evidence of who conducted them.

• In response to the concern that PNC checks had been carried out on someone who claimed compensation after the disaster, the IOPC conducted a comprehensive search of the archived material to establish whether any form of check was conducted on any other individual. Only one more check was found.
 

Significant new evidence 

In June 2016, during a search of SYP premises conducted at the IOPC’s request, a book of SYP standing orders from late 1989/early 1990 was found. This contained the standing orders around use of the PNC referred to in this section.

The IOPC also contacted former PNC operators at SYP to understand how the PNC was used in 1989 and up to the launch of PNC2.

1. The PNC is a national database of information available to all UK police forces and law enforcement agencies. It holds a range of information relevant to policing, such as records of people who have previous convictions, cautions and formal warnings. It also holds information about all UK drivers and the vehicles they own. 
    
2. The PNC is used by police officers and some police staff routinely in their daily work, for a range of reasons, but there are strict rules on how it should be used. Looking up whether a person has a criminal record on the PNC is known as conducting a PNC check.
    
3. Documents disclosed to the HIP showed that PNC checks were conducted on some of those who died in the Hillsborough disaster. This information had not previously been public knowledge. The documents, which consisted of printouts from the PNC and a handwritten list of personal data about some of those who had died, had been in the possession of the solicitor who had represented Supt Marshall during the original criminal investigation into the disaster and at the Popper Inquests. 
    
4. The documents gave rise to the concern that, in this instance, PNC checks may have been carried out inappropriately or even unlawfully. One reason for this concern was that the checks appeared to have been carried out systematically on a targeted group: those who died in the disaster and who had blood alcohol levels over zero. Another reason was that the information had been in the possession of a third party (the solicitor) who, under normal police procedure, would not have had access to PNC data.
    
5. The HIP Report suggested that the checks were carried out in an attempt to impugn the reputations of those who died. In addition, the HIP Report stated that, in response to claims for compensation for injuries sustained at Hillsborough Stadium, “South Yorkshire Police (SYP) undertook criminal records checks on the claimants.” In fact, the documents available to the HIP provided evidence that this had happened in one case.
    
6. As there appeared to be a clear breach of accepted practice around the use of the PNC, both SYP and WMP referred the matter to the IOPC to investigate.