The Police National Database (PND) was launched officially on Wednesday. Now police forces nationwide are able to share intelligence on crime. The PND has been tested over recent months, and focuses on information relevant to crimes, not victim and witness details.

The database was developed with Logica, costing £75.6m.

National Policing Improvement Agency chief executive Nick Gargan stated that the PND would allow police investigators to see the full intelligence picture. "We know that child abusers, drug dealers and terrorists don't respect force boundaries, but in many cases forces have been conducting their investigations in isolation, unable to see everything the police service knows about a suspect and unable to make fully informed decision. Until now this information had to be shared manually, a fallible and sometimes bureaucratic process dependent on the right staff being able to access and share the relevant files, which could take up to two weeks,"

The PND was developed in accordance with the recommendations of Lord Bichard's inquiry following the Soham murders in 2002.