Gwent police were asked:
Q3. Additionally, the process (receipt of reminders*** and activity) and your policy your policy concerning weeding (as opposed to the PNC manual procedure)
08/08/2024 Gwent police responded:
The Gwent Police PNC Bureau receive Daily Activity Files containing details of vehicles that have been circulated as lost/stolen/found on PNC. These records are reviewed, and local systems checked. Any records with a found marker that has been placed on by Gwent Police remain on PNC in order to weed with the relevant LOS marker. If a found marker has been placed on PNC by another Force, the records are paired to be removed from PNC.
There is no specific policy on weeding.
14/10/2024 – Gwent police manually attend to the ‘confirmation’ – see 11/11/2024 message below
11/2024 – NPCC circular re weeding
For the attention of all Chief Constables
I am writing to request your assistance in the correct recording of all stolen vehicle reports via the Police National Computer (PNC). This request is part of an ongoing effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of PNC records in relation to stolen vehicles.
Initially when a vehicle is reported stolen, a Lost or Stolen (LoS) marker is placed onto the PNC, and at first appears as an “unconfirmed” report.
The PNC then requires the report to be confirmed and the time taken to do this varies by force. Some forces show the vehicle as “Confirmed stolen” immediately, others do not.
Once confirmed, the vehicle will be marked as “Confirmed stolen” on the PNC and the DVLA updated to reflect the vehicle status.
Until the report is confirmed the DVLA at Swansea are not notified of the theft. Any activity on the DVLA record of the vehicle in question would not be referred to Police for investigation during this time.
All confirmed reports remain on PNC for a period of 6 years, whereby any unconfirmed reports are automatically weeded out after 42 days.
An issue has been brought to my attention regarding vehicles that are remaining recorded as “unconfirmed stolen” effectively dropping off the PNC after the specified weed period causing an inaccurate record of the vehicle status.
Could I ask that you check within your force whether all stolen vehicle reports are recorded as “confirmed” as stolen within 24hrs and seek to address should this not be the case. This will ensure the PNC, third party data users and other agencies, such as DVLA, databases accurately reflect a vehicle’s stolen status.
Thank you for your continued support and I appreciate your cooperation and assistance with the matter.
11/11/2024 – Gwent internal correspondence in response to the above NPCC circular:
Email sent to the Chief Officer Executive Support Team on 11/11/2024 in response to NPCC circular, acknowledging that an issue had been identified with Lost/Stolen vehicle reports. This concerned the creation of ‘unconfirmed’ reports within the Force Control Room out of hours, and subsequent PNCB notifications being omitted, resulting in stolen reports dropping off after 42 days. As of 14th October, FCR Operators record the vehicle on as ‘confirmed’ from the offset. If the vehicle has since been found, PNCB remove the stolen report. This revised process is more efficient and ensures that there are no gaps in terms of the management of Lost/Stolen markers. This went live on 14th Oct as FCR Operators required up-skilling.
The full response can be read here.
11/11/2024 – Gwent email ‘place the vehicle as confirmed from the outset’.