At the moment, the provisions of the Police Act 1997 dealing with information on the local police force do not extend to the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. As the Criminal Records Bureau has no jurisdiction there, it cannot directly ask for information from those police forces. We have a sort of gateway arrangement under which the nearest mainland force provides the information. It works, but it is more like a post box, and it is an extra administrative burden.

We want to extend part 5 to the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man by Order in Council. That would give us the opportunity to get rid of the gateway and post box function and allow the CRB to request information directly from those police forces.