Missing People Website

National Protocol Agreement

Click here to read an executive summary of the NPA

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) signed a National Protocol Agreement (NPA) with Missing People to exchange information, handle cases and respond to the issue of missing people.

NPA creates a single, national mechanism for the exchange of data, and its subsequent processing and monitoring by police and Missing People.

The agreement creates a gateway through which to access the range of services that Missing People offers to support police. These services are just a phone call or an email away – at no charge to police. They include emotional support to the families or carers of a missing person, publicity, poster production/distribution and enquiries to support the investigation.

Benefits

• Enables Missing People to proactively offer services to police forces, saving time and resources and providing a safety net to all families/carers
• Helps create a comprehensive record of people reported missing in the UK to enable cross matching with unidentified people and to identify previous/linked disappearances 
• Alerts police to information they might not otherwise have, for persons considered at greater risk of coming to harm or of causing harm to others
• Facilitates the provision of data which will form the basis of reliable statistics and enable further research into causes and solutions
• Informs the development of evidence-based policy and prevention strategies
• Leads to higher resolution rates for missing person cases.

Legal Framework

The processing and exchange of personal data under the NPA is:

• Proportionate. In that the subject or the public are believed to be at immediate risk, or likely to be in danger
• Legal. Justified by article 2 of the HRA which is an absolute right and takes precedence over the limited right of article 8. Data processing is also justified by paragraph 4, schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act, 1998 “necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject”
• Necessary. To fulfil the statutory duty of the police to preserve life and investigate crime.

Procedures

Missing People is notified electronically of cases reported to police. These arrangements do not preclude officers contacting Missing People before the case has been notified electronically

• High risk – notify as soon as practicable
• Medium risk – notify within 72 hours
• Low risk – notify after 14 days.

Missing People apply best practice to information handling, security standards and personnel, including usage of the criminal justice system email network. 

"This marks the beginning of a positive new era for the charity which we hope will be recognised by the Home Office in the form of continued core funding." Paul Tuohy, Chief Executive, Missing People

"Jointly with our partner [Missing People], we have now developed national standards for the management and investigation of missing person enquiries supported by the latest IT systems." Deputy Assistant Commissioner Richard Bryan (ACPO lead on Missing Persons)

Contact for police use :

npa@missingpeople.org.uk.cjsm.net or 0871 222 50 55.