A new Commissioner has been appointed to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), Nick Herbert, Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice, announced today. Sarah Green has been appointed as an operational Commissioner at the IPCC for a term of five years and will take up her post at the beginning of March 2011. Her role will be to ensure the IPCC meets its statutory obligations in overseeing the police complaints system; maintains an effective and efficient oversight system and raises public confidence in the IPCC’s work. Ms Green is a Cambridge graduate; a qualified solicitor...

The coalition government has launched the first stage of plans to give members of the public the right to comment on every aspect of new legislation. From today, you can comment on the government's Protection of Freedoms Bill by visiting www.publicreadingstage.cabinetoffice.gov.uk. Published last week, reforms in the Bill will put an end to unwarranted local authority snooping and unnecessary scrutiny of individuals. This new pilot public reading stage means your comments will be factored into MP's considerations of the legislation as part of its parliamentary passage. The Prime Minist...

The Coalition Government published today the Protection of the Freedoms Bill, following an announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. In the Bill, reference is made to the forthcoming appointment of a Surveillance Camera Commissioner, and to the stipulation of a Code of Practice for the CCTV industry. The CCTV Section of the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) - the trade association for the professional security industry in the UK -  believes that it is in everybody’s interest that this technology is applied to best effect to fight crime – and the ongoing terrorist threa...

Gwent Police is taking remedial action after the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found it in breach of the Data Protection Act for accidentally emailing results of Criminal Reference Bureau (CRB) checks performed by the force to a member of the public. An email containing a spreadsheet of the results of around 10,000 CRB enquiries was mistakenly sent to a website journalist when a staff member at Gwent Police inadvertently copied the wrong person into the email. 863 of the records indicated that the individual had personal information recorded but no details of criminal convictions ...

Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, said: “I welcome the publication of the Protection of Freedoms Bill and support its aims of strengthening privacy, delivering greater transparency and achieving improved accountability, as well as greater independence for the ICO. The Bill engages with issues that have been longstanding concerns for us: ensuring the right organisations are subject to freedom of information requirements; that the information the public need is available when they need it; increased privacy safeguards on biometric information such as DNA profiles and ensuring effe...

Millions of people will be protected from unwarranted state intrusion in their private lives with a return to common sense government, the Home Secretary outlined today in the Protection of Freedoms Bill. The Bill steps up the coalition government's commitment to restore hard-won British liberties. An array of sweeping reforms will put an end to unwarranted local authority snooping and unnecessary scrutiny of individuals. It will see: an end to the routine monitoring of 9.3 million people under the radically reformed vetting and barring scheme millions of householders protected from...

A database built to hold the fingerprints and personal details of millions of ID card holders has today been publicly destroyed. Around 500 hard disk drives and 100 back up tapes containing the details of 15,000 holders have been magnetically wiped and shredded. They will soon be incinerated in an environmentally friendly waste-for-energy process. This signals an end to the National Identity Register which was built to hold the details of people who applied for an ID card. The scheme was scrapped by the coalition government and the cards ceased to be valid legal documents on 22 January. Hom...

 Voting has opened for the first ever Counter Terrorism and Specialist Security Awards. The awards have been set up in order that the industry can recognise and reward the incredible work of the many organisations involved in counter terrorism and specialist security around the world. Companies will be nominated by those working in the industry through the online voting process and the winners will be announced in a spectacular ceremony on the 19th April at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington. The Master of Ceremonies for the evening is scheduled to be Jeremy Bowen, Middle East Editor for the...

The ASIS International UK Chapter has an annual award named in honour of much respected former chairman, Mervyn David: this is usually awarded for services to ASIS or the wider security community. The chapter have decided to widen the scope this year and are pleased to make the 2010 award to David Hines, founder of the charity The National Victims Association.  David founded the charity in 1992 following the murder of his 23 year old daughter Marie. The Charity supports families bereaved through homicide by providing respite events, specialist bereavement counselling, legal advice, adv...

ACPO responds to an HMIC review calling for police to remain adaptable to the changing nature of protests. ACPO lead on public order and public safety Temporary Chief Constable Sue Sim said: “The police service is constantly adapting to the challenges posed by public order policing. There is no doubt that the face and shape of protests continues to change and we continuously learn from sharing our knowledge and experience of facilitating protests across the country. “The service has a clear commitment to ensure peaceful protest can take place and balance the rights of everyone involved ...