Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many custody images of people who have not been convicted of a crime are stored in the Police National Database.

The Police National Database (PND) hold custody records, including facial images, that are a copy of custody records held by forces. It does not process these records and has no mechanism to identify which custody records progressed to conviction or ‘No Further Action’ on the local force system as it does not hold information of how offences are subsequently disposed (this information resides on PNC, but not PND).

College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice sets our the basis upon which Police Forces retain custody images, which individual Forces then apply locally.