Question
Immigrant status - I would like an explanation as to why PSNI had previously told us that status was not regularly being checked of victims and witnesses of crime and it turned out that it was being regularly checked?
Answer
The Police Service’s corporate position since July 2021 has, as explained to the Policing Board, been that when an individual reports to the police that they have been a victim of, or a witness to, a crime, the focus of the police will always be: -
To investigate the allegation the victim/witness has reported; and
To put in place such reasonable measures as are necessary to protect the victim/witness from harm.
Figures obtained from the Home Office, under Freedom of Information (FOI) requests by investigative journalists from ‘The Detail’, indicated that between May 2020 and November 2022 the Police Service had contacted HOIE’s National Command and Control Unit (NCCU) 3,409 times by telephone alone.
As a consequence, a decision was taken by Assistant Chief Constable Singleton to commence an ‘end-to-end review’ of processes to establish if and why officers had been contacting the Home Office in such numbers.
This ‘end-to-end review’ identified two primary sources for these 3,409 referrals to Home Office.
1. Automated NICHE1 processes created for Operation Nexus2
2. Processes for investigating Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking (MSHT)
Automated NICHE Processes created for Operation Nexus
An automated NICHE tasking process was discovered and is assessed as having been responsible for driving much of this ‘traffic’ between the Police Service and the Home Office. This tasking process directed investigating officers to complete a ‘Foreign National Entry’ form for any ‘foreign national’ suspect, victim or witness. The template for this form stated that officers must contact Home Office Immigration for ‘guidance on immigration status’. Doing so would necessarily have resulted in the sharing of information by the Police Service with the Home Office. This in turn would have led to a check by the Home Office on the individual’s immigration status.
Processes for investigating suspected Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking (MSHT) offences
In addition to this ‘task’ the ‘end-to-end’ review established that, over time, the screening process and practices for Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking (MSHT) investigations for all suspected offenders, victims and witnesses had also evolved, to the extent that NCCU contact is advised if it is assessed that there are either immigration offences, or it is believed further information held by the Home Office could be obtained. This has included routine checks of immigration status.
These operational processes were found to be entirely inconsistent with the policy position adopted by the service from July 2021 and that communicated to the NIPB.
Assistant Chief Constable Singleton, Local Policing, has been acting as the Gold lead for what is a cross-cutting organisational matter. In light of the findings of the ‘end-to-end’ review, a decision was made by ACC Singleton on 29 March 2023 to immediately cease the Niche tasking script and implement a revised Niche tasking script, which now only prompted for confirmed crime and RTC occurrences where a ‘Foreign National’ suspect was involved. These changes resulted in an immediate reduction of approximately 75% in tasks prompting officers to complete the Foreign National Entry Template. This revised script has now been running for over 10 months and for the 3 month period between 01/11/2023 and 01/02/2024 there have been 1091 Foreign National tasks initiated. This equates to approximately 11 tasks initiated per day. Prior to the change implemented on 29 March 2023, approximately 40 tasks were initiated daily. This equates to a 72% drop in Niche task prompts since the Niche script was amended.
Further detail on the proposed next steps in this area can be found in ACC Singleton’s 7 February 2024 letter to Mr Gerry Kelly, Chair of the Performance Committee.
Linda Dillon MLA - Sinn Féin