Impact assessment

Law Enforcement Data Service: equality impact assessment January 2024 (accessible)

Updated 28 August 2024

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

Demonstrating Compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)

Due regard must be shown:

• Decision-makers must be made aware of their duty to have ‘due regard’ and to the aims of the duty.
• Due regard is fulfilled before and at the time a particular policy or operational activity, that will or might affect people with protected characteristics is under consideration, as well as at the time a decision is taken. It is not a box ticking exercise.
• Due regard involves a conscious approach and state of mind. The duty must be exercised with rigour and an open mind.
• The duty cannot be delegated to another body and will always remain on the body subject to it.
• The duty is a continuing one.
• It is good practice for the public body to keep an adequate record showing that they have considered their equality duties and considered relevant questions.

1. Name and outline of policy proposal, guidance, or operational activity

The Law Enforcement Data Service (LEDS) will provide police forces and other law enforcement agencies with an on-demand and joined-up information at their point of need. This will reduce and prevent crime whilst offering better safeguards to the public. The full service is expected to be in place by 2026.

Law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom currently make use of a wide variety of information systems at a local level. They collect and process data in connection with their law enforcement and policing purposes. LEDS will help to share some of the information, based on various permissions, across various law enforcement agencies in a more timely and effective manner. The data processed via an Application Programme Interface (API) will not be stored, e.g. Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) driver-related data.

This service will replace the Police National Computer (PNC), introduced in 1974. It holds personal data including special category data and other information relating to individuals, including arrests, charges, summons & court disposals (including convictions), warnings and whether a person is wanted or missing as well as information about vehicles and stolen property. PNC data is constituted from data in other systems. This data will be ported onto the new service and will see a period of time where Policing will have access to both systems’ simultaneously and updates in PNC will be replicated onto LEDS. This is known as two-way replication.

Similar to PNC, LEDS will have 4 core product services in LEDS which are;

• Person Service: This is the most used product within LEDS and will enable users to search the national person records and update them with the latest person identity information and wanted reports. With the right permissions, persons’ records can also be created. This will generally be a user’s first port of call, in order to establish whether a person’s record exists on LEDS. The other sub-products within this service are;
  • Criminal Justice, including wanted people
  • Operational Reports
  • Missing People
  • Firearms Database

• Driver Service:  This product checks the DVLA database for registered driver licensing information and will enable Road Policing officers and other investigators of road traffic matters to establish a person’s current driving license status, entitlement to drive and other restrictions.

• Vehicle Service: This product checks against a vehicle description for information on insurance, tax and police owned reports. LEDS will provide access to DVLA data regarding the vehicle, data on the vehicle’s insurance status and on its MoT status.

• Property Service: This product will provide policing with a system which allows national reporting and recording of property items, within specified categories, as lost, stolen or found.

These products are supported by several over-arching LEDS tools, which ensure the quality, compliance and governance of the data, including;

• Data quality and Standards
• Auditing
• Alerts and Notifications
• Data Access Processes
• Reporting

The Home Office are responsible for developing, supporting, and maintaining the LEDS service. The majority of users in the UK are;

• 43 geographic police forces of England and Wales, plus British Transport Police (BTP), Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC), Ministry of Defence Police (MoDP) and the National Crime Agency (NCA)
• Police Service of Scotland (referred to as Police Scotland)
• Police Service of Northern Ireland (referred to as PSNI)

There are a number of other law enforcement organisations, authorised to access the data. The Police are the main controllers of the data as they create much of its content. They cooperate their responsibilities under a Joint Controller Agreement. There are a number of other authorised organisations who will be able to create and make updates to date held in LEDS. This makes those organisations Controllers of the data they create.

2. Summary of the evidence considered in demonstrating due regard to the Public-Sector Equality Duty.

The Home Office and Policing are discharging their public sector equality duty responsibilities through a variety of policies, practices and procedures. The below items show how both are consciously ensuring LEDS and the use of LEDS is undertaken with equality in mind;

Policy and strategic drivers	Description
Code of Ethics	This sets and defines the exemplary standards of behaviour for everyone who works in policing. It is a supportive, positive, everyday decision-making framework and is a constant reinforcement of the values and standards that policing is proud of. It is intended to encourage personal responsibility and the exercise of professional judgement; empowering everyone in policing to ensure they always do the right thing.
LEDS Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)	The programme is developing an over-arching DPIA. It has worked with the Product Owners and wider teams to help identify and minimise the data protection risks at an overarching level. The processing, if not mitigated, could result in a high risk to individuals rights and freedoms. This includes some specified types of processing for certain groups, such as children and other vulnerable individuals.
LEDS (Product Service) Data Protection Impact Assessment	The Services (Person, Drivers, Vehicles and Property) will also have product-level DPIAs. With the aide of the Product teams, they will delve into greater details on the datasets and associated privacy risks, to ensure privacy by design is at the forefront of its development.
Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA)	The programme will be undertaking an over-arching CRIA. This focuses specifically on how children’s rights may be affected by the decisions and actions of governments, institutions and others in the areas of law, policy and practice.
Government Digital Service (GDS) Standards guidelines and products	The Programme follows the Government Digital Service Standard to ensure that it creates and is able to operate a fit for purpose service. The standard defines a set of 14 rules and principles to follow best practices when building a digital service for users. Each item on the standard represents steps towards creating a user-focused website or application that is secure and flexible enough to evolve over time.
In May 2023 Chief Constables’ Council agreed a policing standard for the recording of protected characteristics	The aims these standards are to provide policing with consistent values by which to record protected characteristics. The ambition is that the standard will be applied to both current record management and operational systems and future systems and will evolve as legislation, societal expectations and recording standards change.
PNC and LEDS Code of Practice & Guidance 2023	The aim of this Code is to provide public confidence in the legitimacy and integrity of information that is available through PNC or LEDS and the lawful purposes for which this is applied. It introduced 10 Principles all users must follow. It also provides a framework and operational context for relevant authorities, such as His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services to monitor how information within PNC and LEDS is created.
Awareness e-Learning for PNC/LEDS Code of Practice	The programme has developed a comprehensive training programme to accompany the Code. All police users must undertake the training before they can access LEDS. There are 4 mandatory modules for users, which illustrate good practice in managing data and using data taken from PNC and LEDS and 3 specialist modules. This will include appropriate recording and use of data quality standards.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).	HMICFRS carry out inspections of police forces in England and Wales. These can range from individual function areas through to critical national issues and themes across the police service. HMICFRS have taken an active role in advising on data management for PNC and LEDS. There are equivalent organisations undertaking similar roles for forces in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The NPCC Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Strategy 2018-2025.	The Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Co-ordination Committee own, develop and deliver this strategy on behalf of the NPCC. Forces use toolkits, developed in communities, organisations and partners. It will support each force in embedding the diversity, equality and inclusion Strategy within forces. They also own the work on Developing recording standards for protected characteristics which LEDS will be seeking to adhere to.
Equality Act 2018 Accessibility Report (product service level)	All product Teams will be completing an accessibility report as part of their assurance of the product.
Police Race Action Plan	This is a Police action plan released to address race disparities affecting black people. It is attempting to increase community relations, changing a legacy of distrust in the police.
NPCC Guidance on Disregarding Certain Convictions 2017	The guidance is to assist force personnel to properly manage the disregarding of certain convictions processes.   Guidelines produced by the NPCC should be used by Chief Officers to shape police responses to ensure that people experience consistent levels of service.
The Data Protection Act 2018 & UK General Data Protection Regulation	The programme (technical architects) is developing LEDS within the requirements of data protection legislation, including adopting privacy by design as default.
Information Management Authorised Professional Practice	This sets out policing responsibilities in relation to the management and use of data.

3a. Consideration of limb 1 of the duty: Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation, and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act.

Age

Direct discrimination

Children’s ability to be found culpable for a crime is defined in law. The UK has one of the lowest ages of criminal responsibility in Europe. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the age of criminal responsibility is set at 10 years old. This means that a child under the age of 10 cannot be arrested or charged with a crime and will not be entered as such in LEDS. In Scotland, only children aged 12 years or above can be prosecuted. LEDS is a national policing service, processing data for law enforcement purposes mostly collated from local systems. As a result, the data processed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will not hold data, in relations to children’s criminality, under the age of 10 years old. It could be argued that children under this age are positively (or directly) discriminated as prescribed by law. Users of LEDS are expected to establish the age of a person by asking for a date of birth, in the first instance. LEDS will capture this in the British English date format – day/month/year.

It is possible that the details of children (under 18 years old) are captured in LEDS because they have been identified as vulnerable individuals. For example, due to coercion and intimidation by gangs in relation to county-line offences, which often involve children as well as vulnerable adults. Officers can create Reports for (suspected) victims on the Operational Information page such as those relating to Child Sexual Exploitation. Guidance on its use notes that once a person is no longer a child, the page should be updated to show them as being a vulnerable adult instead. Forces will need to manage their policies for these entries carefully, respecting the human rights of the victim, a duty of care and their right to privacy. Similarly, where there is suspected Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order, issued under Serious Crime Act 2015, officers can create an entry for a child who is or assumed to be a victim of FGM and has been issued with such an order. These can be linked to perpetrators or suspected perpetrators.

By virtue of case law, criminal data in PNC can be kept until the person’s 100th birthday. The policing retention period is currently under review and whilst this is awaited will also apply to LEDS. Those aged 100 years old and over are therefore positively discriminated and deemed to be a lower threat to society irrespective of the seriousness of the crimes they committed. There is a strong case for this period increasing in light of people living longer and healthier lives and the prevalence of online crimes.

Indirect discrimination

Some of the indirect consequences of retention and therefore disclosure on the young relate to the impact any data that is held can have in adult life. For example, where people are potentially refused opportunities in employment or when seeking to relocate to other countries because of data held in national systems such as LEDS. The impact on those lives can be devasting often in comparison to the actual offence committed, e.g. where a police caution is issued. The younger the offender, the longer any potential impact can have on their lives. For example, a petty theft incident committed in a person’s youth in which they received a warning, caution or even a conviction. The retention review is expected to deal with some of these concerns.

Legislation means that children that fall under the age of criminal responsibility, partaking in potentially criminal activities are not held accountable and will not be impacted in the same ways as those described as young people/adults. Individuals can access their Subject Access Rights to understand what, if any, data is held by policing on them.

Disability

Direct discrimination

The Equality Act 2010 defines disability as a long-standing illness, disability or impairment which causes difficulty with day-to-day activities. Disability is a self-defined status and in the context of law enforcement, disability discussions tend to focus on disabled people as victims. A person’s disability status, whether as an offender or victim, is processed on LEDS as a safeguarding matter. It may be flagged as an ‘Ailment marker’ on the person’s profile. It may be a temporary or permanent ailment and will provide advice to anyone dealing with the person that they may suffer from a medical condition and/or require medication, e.g. epileptic, alcoholic, heart condition.   LEDS can also place an information marker on those that perpetrate crimes against victims with additional vulnerabilities, such as a disabled person and who may continue to pose a threat to that group. They are treated as priority markers. This is accompanied by a 60 characters free text area for users to enter additional information.

Indirect discrimination

Occurrences of indirect discrimination, where the vulnerability of a person is not acknowledged, are more likely where a disability is not obvious and therefore potentially invisible. For example, autism spectrum disorder, depression, diabetes, and learning and thinking differences such as ADHD and dyslexia. These neurodivergent disabilities can pose a significant risk of indirect discrimination. It is important that officers know that using the ‘Mental Health’ marker is not an appropriate marker for neurodivergent disabilities. It is expected that the free text field will be used to further elaborate these markers. Work in this area is ongoing to review neurodiversity. In these instances, where it is initially unclear or not obvious, it may be possible to indirectly discriminate against a disabled individual.

Reasonable adjustments

There is an additional duty under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments for a person who is placed in a substantial disadvantage because of their disability when compared to a person who does not share their disability. Officers receive regular training on how to manage situations where members of the public who are disabled interact with law enforcement and will utilise these skills and experience to best judge the situation. Merely asking an individual about their disability status is unlikely to be sufficient enough to identify individual needs and provide reasonable adjustments but its a start. Discretion is always advised when seeking to establish the nature of the disability. For example, whilst being arrested, it may not always be necessary to handcuff such individuals before taking them to the police station for further questioning.

Gender reassignment

Direct discrimination

In May 2023 Chief Constables’ Council agreed a policing standard for the recording of protected characteristics - this includes both sex and gender reassignment and represents the approach that policing have approved for dealing with all protected characteristics. The protected characteristic of gender reassignment deals with a person proposing to undergo, who is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing physiological or other attributes of their sex. More than 1 in 4 people who are transgender (28%) had experienced crime, compared with 14% of those whose gender identity is the same as the sex they were registered at birth. Misgendering occurs when there is intentional or unintentional reference to a person, relate to a person, or the use of  language to describe a person that does not align with their affirmed gender.

The Gender Reassignment Act 2004 also allows people who have lived in their preferred gender for at least two years to change their sex lawfully by applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). Prior to February 2023, they would have been dealt with within the criminal justice system as a person of that sex when it comes to gender specific sexual offences. An updated framework came into force in February 2023 which means that transgender women offenders will no longer be housed in women’s prisons if they have male genitalia or have committed sex crimes. The new approach extended to include those who have committed violent crimes. The new guidance applies regardless of whether transgender prisoners have a Gender Recognition Certificate, with exemptions only to be made in the most exceptional cases. LEDS can use an Information Marker (GR and/or ‘living as Male/Female’) on a profile for a person with a GRC. Any resulting changes, such as names and sex classifications will be undertaken centrally by a Reconciliation Team, acting on the authority of the Controller. Any previous names will be added to the person’s aliases.

Section 22 of the Act protects transgender people being outed against their will. Criminal proceedings should be conducted in a way that prevents a person being inappropriately outed as part of the proceedings and as such officers and criminal justice procedures must adhere to this.

Referring to a woman as “he” or calling her a “guy” is an act of misgendering. It is not to be assumed that a person’s gender identity remains the same. It is therefore important to obtain both pieces of information to ensure that both gender reassignment and sex information are collected. Misgendering can have negative consequences for a transgender person’s self-confidence and overall mental health. PNC does not currently have a separate ‘Gender’ capture field, though it is often used inter-changeably to capture a person’s sex.

Indirect discrimination

There is no legal obligation on any person with a GRC to inform the police that they have changed their name or gender so there is a possibility that a person is indirectly discriminated as a result.

The options available in LEDS to record gender are, in the first iteration, ‘Male’, ‘Female’ and ‘Unknown’. However, in 2016 a Women and Equalities Committee report recommended that the use of the terms ‘gender reassignment’ and ‘transsexual’ in the Equality Act 2010 are outdated and misleading. The preferred umbrella term is ‘trans’. NPCC 2023 guidance identifies the below as recordable options for an individual’s self-determination; - Man - Woman - Non-binary - Prefer to self-describe - Prefer not to say

LEDS will not be utilising these options during its initial development  as the focus will be on replacing ‘like-for-like’ with PNC. This is being referred to the period of parity, where there will be limits placed on the introduction of additional functionality in order to ensure the delivery of LEDS. The potential for indirect discrimination potentially increases the longer it takes before PNC is decommissioned and changes are readily available on LEDS. However, LEDS will be mitigating the impact by introducing new categories in the transformation phase of LEDS to reflect recent Policing guidance. This will also involve guidance available by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). As a result, there is a possibility that indirect discrimination is possible.

Note: The Equality Act continues to refer to ‘gender reassignment’.

Marriage and civil partnership

Direct discrimination

There is no direct discrimination based on marriage and civil partnership within LEDS. Such information may be relevant to an incident where perpetrator and victim live together or had previously lived together.

Indirect discrimination

There is no indirect discrimination based on Marriage and Civil Partnership in LEDS.

Pregnancy and maternity

Direct Discrimination

Pregnancy status is intrinsically linked to an individual’s sex in that only females can become pregnant, whilst both men and women can be involved in maternity. LEDS will invariably interact with pregnant women as both offenders, victims and members of the wider community. Pregnancy, by its nature is a transient state lasting 9 months. Similarly with maternity, it refers to the period after the birth, and is linked to maternity leave in the employment context. In the non-work context, protection against maternity discrimination is for 26 weeks after giving birth, and this includes treating a woman unfavorably because, for example, she is breastfeeding. In relation to LEDS, there is unlikely to be any direct discrimination that would go outside of the duty of care an officer will have. It is more relevant to imprisonment as highlighted in the Corston Report (2007) which identified a number of potential needs and vulnerabilities in relation to detained women. For example, pregnancy, either known or suspected (particularly when considering modes of restraint, transport and the potential requirement for additional and different types of food and/or drinks). The Equality Act is referenced within PACE Code C 2019. Pregnancy is potentially a vulnerability and as such should be captured to ensure the individual receives the appropriate care and support. There is no set custody risk assessment for pregnancy, the custody sergeant is expected to make the enquiry as part of the processing into custody. We are not aware of any evidence that LEDS will have a differential impact with respect to pregnancy or maternity.

Indirect discrimination

At this time, there is no indirect discrimination based on pregnancy and maternity for LEDS products.

Race

Direct Discrimination

The term ‘race’ is all encompassing and refers to an individual’s skin colour, nationality, ethnicity or national group. A person’s colour is seen as one of the key factors used to positively identify that person. The police began classifying arrests in racial groups in 1975 and this still forms the basis of the present-day use of the Identity Codes (IC). LEDS will use the term ‘ethnicity’ to make the distinction of races. These are categorised below;

1. White – Northern European
2. White – South European
3. Black        
4. Asian
5. Chinese, Japanese, or Other South East Asian
6. Arabic or North African
7. Unknown

This is known as the ‘6+1’ identity codes and is a description of an officer’s perception (based on skin colour) of a person’s ethnicity. This is usually in the context of dealing with a defendant/suspect. The Steven Lawrence enquiry introduced two new self-defined categories (Arab & Gypsy/Irish traveller) that the police had been using since 2003. Concepts of race continue to change and evolve, for example, it is recognised that being Jewish is a legally recognised ethnicity, following the Office of National Statistics (ONS) classification methodology. The ONS use 18+1 ethnic group classifications. It should be noted that the categories are different in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

LEDS will initially be constrained by the need to replace like-for-like but it is expected that the ONS Protected Characteristic guidance will be utilised. There are some peculiarities that exist with the current system, for example a person is unable to define themselves as ‘Black-British’ or Asian-British’. Therefore, it is possible that those that identify as being in these groups feel discriminated against as they are unable to capture their self-identified race in a way that they feel describes them best.

Indirect discrimination

Within all the ethnic groups identified in the UK, there were proportionally more arrests made amongst those from the black community. A recent ICO report on the Gang Matrix used by Police to identify gang involvement found that over 80% of the individuals on the matrix were black. Information relating to individuals identified as ‘Green’ (for safe) was not removed despite guidance indicating that it should be. The retention of this data had adverse effects and disproportionality caused issues for individuals who were classified as black. It is recognised that there are indirect consequences of being involved with law enforcement as an offender/suspect and is likely to have increased detrimental impact on black and ethnic minority individuals on life chances. There are also considerations for those who are targeted because they are an asylum seeker, illegal economic migrants or refugees. This is intrinsically linked to a person’s ethnicity and origins. Users are required to abide by the Code of Practice and are given appropriate training on how to engage with members of the public. Access to the data is controlled and the auditing functionality in LEDS also provides visibility on how the data is being used. LEDS is not expected to cause any indirect discrimination, beyond that of perceptions and stereotypes that exist in all levels of society.

Religion or belief

Direct discrimination

Religion and law enforcement is viewed in terms of the concept of religious affiliation. This identifies how a person connects or identifies with a religion, regardless of whether they actively practise it. In 2018/19, there were 103,379 hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales. In 2018/2019, the police recorded 8,566 hate crimes offences related to religion; these offences accounted for 8% of all hate crimes recorded by the police. There has been a year-on-year upwards trend for hate crimes, though recent increases in the last 5 years have largely been explained due to improvements in crime recording by the police. LEDS should have no direct discrimination in relation to a person’s religion or beliefs.

Indirect discrimination

Like other social constructs the definition of religion evolves over time. For example, Paganism is, by definition in the ONS data, the 7th largest religion in England & Wales. Paganism also has a national police staff association endorsed by the Joint Controllers on behalf of Police forces, Home Office and the College of Policing. There is also an opportunity for those that interact with LEDS to state they have no religion. Though, there are emerging religions and beliefs all the time and it may be possible that people interact with LEDS, and their religion or belief is not reflected on the list used. Recent police guidance has suggested that people are given the opportunity to specify any other religion, using a free text capability as well as a preference not to say. Despite these changes there does not appear to be any indirect discrimination based on religion or belief for LEDS Products.

Sex

Direct discrimination

There are some specific offences, for example, that disproportionally impact victims of one sex more than the other. This includes female genital mutilation (FGM), forced marriage and domestic violence and rape. LEDS is able to define individuals as male or female. This may discriminate against those that do not identify with either standard sex classifications, e.g. male or female. See below.

Indirect discrimination

Sex refers to the biological aspects of an individual as determined by their anatomy, which is produced by chromosomes, hormones and their interactions, so generally male or female are assigned at birth. However, some people identify as nonbinary which is an umbrella term for people whose identities do not align with the man-woman binary, though this is often in relation to discussions on gender. They may identify with a different sex than what they were assigned at birth. Not capturing these nuances in LEDS may result in an individual also experiencing indirect discrimination. The NPCC guidance recommends the addition of ‘intersex’ as an additional option to account for the small number of individuals to who this description relates.

Sexual orientation

Direct discrimination

Discrimination based on sexual orientation happens when a person is treated differently because of their sexual orientation. Sexual orientation also includes how a person chooses to express their sexuality, where any such discrimination is illegal. As in previous years, 2018/2019 crime statistics show sexual orientation hate crime was the second most recorded hate crime in most police forces. The NPCC guidance identifies heterosexual, gay, lesbian and bisexual as appropriate labels to use as required in policing. There is no dedicated capture on a person’s sexual orientation in LEDS.

Indirect discrimination

There is no need to capture a person’s sexual orientation if it bears no significance to their interaction with law enforcement. The criminalisation of homosexuals by convictions, cautions, warnings or reprimands has recently been ‘disregarded’ by the Home Secretary. There are a vast number of police records (5.5M) that were manually recorded between the 1920s & 1990s. These records are kept in secure police storage and re-captured on Microfiche film. Over the years some of these Microfiche have been converted onto PNC, whilst others have not. This is known as Back Record Conversion. Police have tasked the Criminal Records Office with managing the deletion of all relevant records held on national police databases and guidance has been issued to ensure consistency in its approach. However, this is not an exact science, and it is sometime difficult to delete Microfiche records that contain other relevant offences. In such cases the team will engage processes that will, as far as possible, prevent the disclosure of disregarded convictions, cautions, warnings or reprimands where it is otherwise impossible to delete. It is possible that not all of these records have been weeded out of the physical microfiche library or PNC before the data is migrated onto LEDS. As a result, it may be possible for people to be indirectly discriminated if convictions that should have been removed from their records, are still available, e.g. Data Barring Service.

3b. Consideration of limb 2: Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

Age

Children under the age of legal responsibility (10 years old) are not processed in LEDS as offenders. For example, children between 10 and 17 years old can be arrested and taken to court if they commit a crime. In Scotland children aged 12 to 16 can be taken to court but only for serious crimes. Most offences committed by children of this age will be dealt with by early intervention. They will appear in youth courts and will be sentenced differently to adults. The Programme will deliver LEDS, pro-actively managing the delivery of the service to children. The proportion of children’s data captured on PNC under the ages of 18 (as compared to adults) is low and lower still for children aged 10 years and under. LEDS will allow the creation of records for children under the age of 10 for non-offence data. For example, capturing data in relation to missing children or where they may be in imminent danger of a forced marriage, an abduction or of female genital mutilation. Products focused on Missing people will have disproportionately more data on younger people, who are more likely to be reported missing in higher proportions, particularly where a child is in care. This data already exists in PNC, albeit in a small proportion. The programme is completing an over-arching Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) to specifically identify risks and mitigations over children’s data in LEDS.

Children are not regarded as being able to properly consent to their data being processed until 13 years old(DPA). The majority of the processing in LEDS will be under the DPA and the rights conferred in Part 3, chapter 3. However, there are some differences between Part 2 (which deals with general processing) and Part 3 rights. This means that some rights are not applicable under the law enforcement purpose. Any basis of processing must have a clear basis in law and must also be documented so that it is clear under which regime the data has been processed. Privacy Notices should be used to clearly identify the purpose/s of processing personal data within LEDS in clear and accessible language. These will be available at force level.

Disability

It is always lawful to treat a disabled person more favorably than a non-disabled person. The treatment could be a one-off action, the application of a rule or policy or the existence of physical or communication barriers which make accessing something difficult or impossible. LEDS has a series of information markers used for safeguarding basis. These are used to inform those coming into close contact that the individual concerned may have either a declared or undeclared disability. LEDS training should ensure that all safeguarding markers are correctly used to reduce the chances of discrimination and other adverse effects on the individual.

Gender reassignment

PNC acknowledges Gender Recognition Certificate introduced by the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA). This was an important legislation, when passed. However, the Act is now seen as somewhat dated and in need of clarification updates. This area has seen a move away from an approach defined by doctors and psychologists to factors such as respect for an individual’s right to choose what they want to be and with dignity. Legacy data has the information marker ‘gender re-assigned’ that can be used on a record; however, this may not reflect the wishes of the individual involved. It is clear from the Women and Equalities Committee report in 2016 that it is no longer acceptable or appropriate to label someone with this and could reduce equality of opportunity. The use of that terminology could potentially lead to discrimination, and every effort should be used to determine the wishes of the individual. LEDS training needs to reflect the sensitive and protected nature of this data. For example, this should not be a perceived information marker category and individuals must agree (declare) that they are comfortable with sharing this data. The Report recommends the mandatory national transphobic hate-crime training for police officers. The NPCC commissioned a ‘Protected Characteristics: Operational Recording Data Standard report in March 2023 to help inform and educate policing on all protected characteristics.

Maternity and pregnancy

LEDS as a national system is unlikely to have any direct discriminatory impact on pregnant women outside of an officer’s duty of care to that person or maternity as a whole.

Race

The introduction of the self-defined ethnic classification came into effect in 2003. It required all officers who encountered individuals as part of stop and search to record the individuals self-defined 16+1 ethnicity as a recommendation of the 1999 Stephen Lawrence inquiry. The adoption of the 18+1 as used by ONS into LEDS will ensure consistency and standardisation for monitoring purposes. The use of any data from LEDS for research and analytical purposes will be managed by the data owners and anonymised as required to protect individual identities.

Religion or belief

LEDS will need to use appropriate inclusive language – excluding non-religious people by using ‘faith & religion’ instead of ‘religion & belief’ suggests that non-religious beliefs are not as important to individuals as religious beliefs. Using exclusive terms - for example, ‘religious discrimination’ instead of ‘discrimination on grounds of religion or belief’ suggests that discrimination on grounds of non-religious beliefs is not relevant. This data is not captured as a general data set in LEDS but should be captured for victims of hate crimes and details may be available in victim statements etc. Apart from that it should not be relevant to an officer’s initial contact with individuals. This will change as the individual further goes through the criminal justice process and may impact the food they are given to eat, time/space given for prayers for example.

Sex

PNC used markers such as ‘Female Impersonator’ and ‘Male Impersonator’ used to describe a particular mode of operation where suspects deliberately disguise themselves, as the opposite sex in order to evade detection was misused. There were instances where it could be inappropriately used to label a transgendered individual. The ambiguity of the terms means that it could be incorrectly used to describe a victim or an offender, for example, who has or is transitioning to being male/female. The Names Group is a national change management group for PNC. They recently added the warning signals ‘Impersonates’ which will be used alongside the free text field to define the details of who a perpetrator often impersonates as a disguise, e.g. a gas board worker or a Police Officer. There will need to be a full review of all terminology and where necessary updates applied to markers in LEDS to avoid discriminating members of a protected community. The reference data in LEDS will be reviewed as part of the Data Quality work being undertaken and will ensure that terms used are suitable and appropriate for a modern and inclusive service. LEDS will permit searches on a person’s sex (M/F).

Sexual orientation  

This is not a searchable field and is not relevant to any classification unless it is a detail for the case being investigated, e.g. as a victim or an offender/suspect to an incident.

3c. Consideration of limb 3: Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. The duty here excludes marriage and civil partnerships.

All users of the service must pay due regard to the PNC and LEDS Code of Practice, which introduces principles on how to manage the data in a fair and appropriate manner.

Age  

The legislation relating to age of criminality establishes the parameters of law enforcement and LEDS is a vital tool in maintaining proper legal application of the law. It is becoming increasingly accepted that there are disadvantages to introducing children into the criminal justice system, too early on in their lives. Research suggests the peak age of criminality is between 14-25. After the age of 25 there is a steep drop in criminal behaviour. This is because people take on new roles in the work force, relationships etc. and the prospect of jail and its adverse impact on these areas become more realistic. Achieving age equality for older people does not always mean treating them in the same way as younger people, or vice versa. For example, when discussing life chances and the retention of data, there ought to be a recognition that the life chances of younger people could be detrimentally affected if LEDS harbours their data for longer than is necessary. Positive steps should be factored into the potential discriminatory impact on education and employment for those that are young, who will have to live with the consequences for longer.

Disability

It is always lawful to treat a disabled person more favourably than a non-disabled person. The treatment could be a one-off action, the application of a rule or policy or the existence of physical or communication barriers which make accessing something difficult or impossible. Officers are given the appropriate training on LEDS and dealing with members of the public who may have a visible disability. It is much harder to, initially, recognise hidden disabilities highlighted above. This is not a specific data set captured in LEDS.

Gender reassignment

There has been a lack of sufficient understanding of trans issues by professionals in the public sector. This probably reflects society’s lack of knowledge and sometimes prejudice. Training on gender-identity issues and on wider protected characteristics will be key to improving knowledge and understanding within policing.

LEDS training needs to reflect the sensitive and protected nature of this data. For example, this should not be a perceived information marker category and individuals must agree (declare) that they are comfortable with sharing this data.

Maternity and pregnancy

Officers have a duty of care to those that they come into contact with and are given relevant training in managing members of the public. There is no specific data set for maternity and pregnancy.

Race

There are existing issues around the race categorisation as individuals are unable to self-define as ‘Black-British’, ‘Asian-British’ or any other combination that is not White. This touches upon discussions about self-identifications and what it means to be ‘British’ today. LEDS collects race data primarily as part of a person’s description/profile. There should be rigorous scrutiny of the actions taken in response to monitoring data collected that reveals disparities in outcomes for members of the ethnic minority groups.

The process for accessing data in LEDS is managed through the Police Information Access Panel (PIAP) process, headed by the LEDS Information Asset Owner. For example, avoiding instances captured in the so-called police ‘Gang Matrix’. It held data, which when analysed showed that 80% of the individuals identified on the Matrix identified as black and that 64% of those on the Matrix were actually classified as low risk. There were over 100 children under the age of 16 on the Matrix. The scoring criteria used on the matrix were intended to classify nominals into three categories of risk and harm. An ICO report found that the retention of this data had adverse effects and disproportionality caused issues for individuals who classified themselves as black.

Religion or belief

In 2017/18 it became mandatory for the police to collect data on the perceived religion of the victims of religious hate crimes. There are nine perceived religions, which match those in the 2011 Census. These are;

• Buddhist
• Christian
• Hindu
• Jewish
• Muslim
• Sikh
• Other
• No religion; and
• Unknown

Forces submit these figures to the Home Office quarterly. There is scope here for ‘other’ religions as well as those that have none to note.

Sex

The Home Office Arrests data 2017/18 show that you are significantly more likely to be arrested if you are male, than female. There were 6,785 arrests of females compared to 57,885 arrests of males in that year. These figures were similar for the following year, with 6,064 and 54,077 arrests respectively. In terms of interaction with the LEDS service both sexes are treated equally, though as other law enforcement agencies become involved, services may become demarcated based on sex. For example, when determining which types of prison to place an individual, as these facilities tend to be based on a person’s biological sex.

Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation has very little to do with your gender identity (gender is not a protected characteristic). It’s solely about who a person is attracted to and is a private matter unless material to the facts of a case. In addition, more people who were criminalised for gay sex in the past will be able to have their convictions wiped from their records. This has recently (March 2023) been widened to include women who were convicted or cautioned under any repealed or abolished offences relating to same-sex activity. Convictions will be deleted from official records and individuals will not be required to disclose them during court proceedings or when applying for jobs.

4. Summary of foreseeable impacts of policy proposal, guidance or operational activity on people who share protected characteristics

The below tables focus on the core LEDS Product identified above.

4.1 LEDS Person Service

Protected characteristic group	Potential for positive or negative impact?	Explanations & examples	Action to address negative impact
Age	Potential impact	LEDS will need to capture the age of Person within LEDS (and PNC whilst it remains a master data source); this will include children and juveniles. Particularly with children, this is to understand potential for risk and to help officers take safeguarding action appropriately. Additionally, this helps determine the legal powers available to officers and what course of action can be taken. Safeguarding of all ages needs to be understood and what powers are available to policing in respect of detention or safeguarding. Children and juveniles need to be risk assessed appropriately in a range of situations where they could be at risk of harm or exploitation. Officers will need to ensure that they take appropriate action according to the age of the person they are dealing with. Similarly, this can also apply to adults who are vulnerable and at risk of exploitation as well. The legal age of responsibility in England, Wales and Norther Ireland is 10 years old and 12 in Scotland. This threshold needs to be understood by officers to use the correct powers of detention or arrest.	LEDS will need to be able to capture and process UK GDPR part 2 data to support the safeguarding of vulnerable people as part of Missing / Found people within LEDS. This information is currently captured as part of Missing or Operational Information reports. Information captured under UK GDPR will need to have an appropriate retention period set and reviewed, ensuring it remains appropriate for policing to continue hold information about a person that could be at risk of harm.
Disability	Potential impact	We will need to capture a range of disabilities within the system. In addition to disability, we will also need to capture Neurodiversity and vulnerabilities of people which are not currently captured as part of PNC. It is important that police can treat all people with respect and dignity and are able to understand the needs of a person according to any disabilities they identify as having. Similarly, it is important that police are aware of a person’s neurodiversity where possible and appropriate and can use this information to appropriately risk assess and act accordingly. A person’s needs according to their disability or neurodiversity should be supported if police exercise their powers of arrest or detention, but also have implications if someone is vulnerable, meaning that police need to a understand the potential risk of harm and appropriate safeguarding action taken.	LEDS will need to work with the appropriate police lead(s) and national forums to agree the correct set of terms to use as reference data relating to disability, neurodiversity, and accessibility when capturing information about people within LEDS. N.B. Whilst LEDS is replicating data with PNC and PNC remains the master data source, LEDS products are constrained by the values and technical capabilities within PNC. Additionally, existing fields and values are used by third party software which include localised validation within the software; as LEDS alters the reference data used, third party vendors will need time to alter their software to use the correct reference data and validation. The LEDS service design will need to reference and prove that all LEDS products meet an agreed set of accessibility standards which incorporate testing with users who have a range of needs including accessibility and neurodiversity needs.
Gender reassignment	Potential impact	It may be necessary to capture the Gender of a Person to be able to ensure their continued safety. For example, throughout the criminal justice process - Prisons will need this information for cell allocations etc. This is an important risk consideration for both those who have committed a crime (and need to have provision made for them whilst being detained by the police) as well as those who are victims of crime or who are at risk of harm. It is important that police can treat all people with respect and dignity and are able to understand the needs of a person according to the gender they identify as. A person’s needs according to their gender need to be supported if police exercise their powers of arrest or detention, but also have implications if someone is vulnerable, meaning that police need to a understand the potential risk of harm and appropriate safeguarding action taken.	LEDS will need to work with the appropriate police lead(s) and national forums to agree the correct set of terms to use as reference data relating to Gender when capturing information about people within LEDS. N.B. Whilst LEDS is replicating data with PNC and PNC remains the master data source, LEDS products are constrained by the values and technical capabilities within PNC. Additionally, existing fields and values are used by third party software which include localised validation within the software; as LEDS alters the reference data used, third party vendors will need time to alter their software to use the correct reference data and validation.
Marriage and civil partnership	Potential impact	It may be necessary to capture whether a Person is Married or in a Civil Partnership to be able to ensure their continued safety. Capturing whether a person is married or is in civil partnership necessary in circumstances where they are at risk of harm from their partner or visa-versa. Examples of this include domestic violence, restraining orders, children who are at risk of abduction – in each of these scenario’s information may be logged on PNC about people relating to the situation and any potential risk or safeguarding there may be as a result.
Pregnancy and maternity	Potential impact	It may be necessary to capture Pregnancy or Maternity information relevant to a Person, as they may have dependents who will be put at risk or who will require support because of police intervention. It is important that police can treat all people with respect and dignity and are able to understand the needs of a person. Where a person has pregnancy/maternity considerations, it is important the police have the necessary information available to them so they may risk assess and take an appropriate course of action which considers a child/children. An example of this may be where one or more children are impacted by a parent being taken into custody and the impacted child/children need to be taken into local authority care.	PNC currently provisions for this using free text held within different report types, however, this is not explicitly provisioned for. N.B. Whilst LEDS is replicating data with PNC and PNC remains the master data source, LEDS products are constrained by the values and technical capabilities within PNC. Additionally, existing fields and values are used by third party software which include localised validation within the software; as LEDS alters the reference data used, third party vendors will need time to alter their software to use the correct reference data and validation.
Race	Potential impact	It may be necessary to capture the Race or Ethnicity of a Person in line with national guidelines and reference data. One of the aims of capturing this information is to help prevent racial profiling or discrimination as well as identification purposes. It is important that police can treat all people with respect and dignity and are able to understand the needs of a person according to their Race / Ethnicity they identify as. A person’s needs according to their Race or Ethnicity need to be supported if police exercise their powers of arrest or detention, but also have implications if someone is vulnerable, meaning that police need to understand the potential risk of harm and appropriate safeguarding action taken. An example of this would be if someone has been threatened and is at risk of harm due to their Race or Ethnicity. Policing also need to be able to ensure that they are not racially profiling or targeting specific Ethnic groups as they are exercising their duties.	LEDS will need to work with the appropriate police lead(s) and national forums to agree the correct set of terms to use as reference data relating to Ethnicity when capturing information about people within LEDS. PNC currently has a field ‘Ethnicity;’ however, the values are not current and up to date. LEDS allow for both officer defined and self-defined ethnicity. N.B. Whilst LEDS is replicating data with PNC and PNC remains the master data source, LEDS products are constrained by the values and technical capabilities within PNC. Additionally, existing fields and values are used by third party software which include localised validation within the software; as LEDS alters the reference data used, third party vendors will need time to alter their software to use the correct reference data and validation.
Religion or belief	Potential impact	It may be necessary to capture the Religion or Beliefs of a Person in line with national guidelines and reference data. The aim of capturing this information is to help prevent discrimination. It is important that police can treat all people with respect and dignity and are able to understand the needs of a person according to their Religion or Belief’s they identify with. A person’s needs according to their Religion or Belief’s need to be supported if police exercise their powers of arrest or detention, but also have implications if someone is vulnerable, meaning that police need to a understand the potential risk of harm and appropriate safeguarding action taken. An example of this would be if someone has been threatened and is at risk of harm due to their Religion or Belief’s	LEDS will need to work with the appropriate police lead(s) and national forums to agree the correct set of terms to use as reference data relating to Religion or Belief when capturing information about people within LEDS. N.B. Whilst LEDS is replicating data with PNC and PNC remains the master data source, LEDS products are constrained by the values and technical capabilities within PNC. Additionally, existing fields and values are used by third party software which include localised validation within the software; as LEDS alters the reference data used, third party vendors will need time to alter their software to use the correct reference data and validation.
Sex	Potential impact	It may be necessary to capture the Sex of a Person in line with national guidelines and reference data. This is an important risk consideration for both those who have committed a crime (and need to have provision made for them whilst being detained by the police) as well as those who are victims of crime or who are at risk of harm. It is important that police can treat all people with respect and dignity and are able to understand the needs of a person according to their Sex. A person’s needs according to their Sex need to be supported if police exercise their powers of arrest or detention, but also have implications if someone is vulnerable, meaning that police need to a understand the potential risk of harm and appropriate safeguarding action taken. An example of this would be if a woman needs to seek refuge from a violent partner.	LEDS will need to work with the appropriate police lead(s) and national forums to agree the correct set of terms to use as reference data relating to Sex when capturing information about people within LEDS. PNC currently has a field ‘Sex, however, this field can be used incorrectly. Guidance for LEDS should include clear terminology and guidance for use alongside Gender. N.B. Whilst LEDS is replicating data with PNC and PNC remains the master data source, LEDS products are constrained by the values and technical capabilities within PNC. Additionally, existing fields and values are used by third party software which include localised validation within the software; as LEDS alters the reference data used, third party vendors will need time to alter their software to use the correct reference data and validation.
Sexual orientation	Potential impact	The aim of capturing this information is to help prevent discrimination. It is important that police can treat all people with respect and dignity and are able to understand the needs of a person according to their Sexual Orientation. A person’s needs according to their Sexual Orientation need to be supported if police exercise their powers of arrest or detention, but also have implications if someone is vulnerable, meaning that police need to a understand the potential risk of harm and appropriate safeguarding action taken. An example of this would be if someone has been threatened and is at risk of harm due to their Sexual Orientation	LEDS will need to work with the appropriate police lead(s) and national forums to agree the correct set of terms to use as reference data relating to Sexual Orientation when capturing information about people within LEDS. N.B. Whilst LEDS is replicating data with PNC and PNC remains the master data source, LEDS products are constrained by the values and technical capabilities within PNC. Additionally, existing fields and values are used by third party software which include localised validation within the software; as LEDS alters the reference data used, third party vendors will need time to alter their software to use the correct reference data and validation.

4.2 LEDS Drivers Service

Protected characteristic group	Potential for positive or negative impact?	Explanations & examples	Action to address negative impact
Age	Potential impact	In the UK a person can apply for their driving licence from 15 years and 9 months and can drive a moped (in some circumstances can drive a car).	NA
Disability	Potential impact	DVLA does not pass on any health or disability data. Eyesight and hearing aid data is provided. Drivers with disabilities may have a 12-, 24- or 36-month licence and the length of the licence is visible, even though the disability will not be shown, this could be worked out via the length of the licence.	LEDS Drivers data is owned and provided by the DVLA, LEDS Drivers have no control over actions to address any impact.
Gender reassignment	TBC with DVLA	TBC	TBC
Marriage and civil partnership	No Impact	LEDS Drivers does not capture this information.	NA
Pregnancy and maternity	No impact	LEDS Drivers does not capture this information.	NA
Race	No impact	LEDS Drivers does not capture this information.	NA
Religion or belief	No impact	LEDS Drivers does not capture this information.	NA
Sex	TBC with DVLA	TBC	TBC
Sexual orientation	No impact	LEDS Drivers does not capture this information.	NA

4.3 LEDS Vehicle Service

Protected characteristic group	Potential for positive or negative impact?	Explanations & examples	Action to address negative impact
Age	Potential impact	In the UK, drivers can start learning to drive mopeds on public roads when they are 16 years old and cars on public roads when they are 17 years old. However, anyone of any age can own and/or be the registered keeper of a vehicle with the DVLA.  May be using this alongside insured individuals named on a policy where a DOB is provided.  This will help officers identify the driver of a vehicle quickly instead of having to derive the age from a DOB.	Discovery activity ongoing about the need for DOB data.
Disability	No impact	DVLA provide information on whether a vehicle is registered with the Motability scheme.  LEDS does not capture additional information on the driver’s status with regard to disability. Inferences to the driver being disabled due to the Motability Scheme marker being present are discouraged in the offline process.	NA
Gender reassignment	Potential impact	Transgender women offenders will no longer be housed in women’s prisons if they have male genitalia or have committed sex crimes. New approach extended to include those who have committed violent crimes	Any resulting changes, such as names and sex classifications will be undertaken centrally by the Reconciliation Team. N.B. Whilst LEDS is replicating data with PNC and PNC remains the master data source, LEDS products are constrained by the values and technical capabilities within PNC.
Marriage and civil partnership	No impact	LEDS Vehicles does not capture this information.	NA
Pregnancy and maternity	No impact	LEDS Vehicles does not capture this information.	NA
Race	Potential impact	IC codes are currently used in PNC and there are plans to use them in LEDS.	N.B. Whilst LEDS is replicating data with PNC and PNC remains the master data source, LEDS products are constrained by the values and technical capabilities within PNC.
Religion or belief	No impact	LEDS Vehicles does   not capture information on religion or beliefs.	NA
Sex	Potential impact	Creation of reports currently only allows Female, Male or Unknown.	N.B. Whilst LEDS is replicating data with PNC and PNC remains the master data source, LEDS products are constrained by the values and technical capabilities within PNC.
Sexual orientation	No impact	LEDS Vehicles does not capture information on a subject’s sexual orientation. are	NA

4.4 LEDS Property Service

Protected characteristic group	Potential for positive or negative impact?	Explanations & examples	Action to address negative impact
Age	No impact	People will have the same experience regardless of age. Information about age is not relevant to any functionality to be used in the application.
Disability	Potential Impact	Whilst the application has been built with accessibility needs in mind it may be that the specific needs of some users may not be met.	An accessibility statement with details on how further assistance can be obtained has been provided and is accessible from the product via a link or via a direct request to the Service management team within the LEDS Programme. Users have been provided with details on how to raise a request to the LEDS Programme.
Gender reassignment	No impact	People will have the same experience regardless of gender. Gender status information is not relevant to any features or functionality in the application.	NA
Marriage and civil partnership	No impact	People will have the same experience regardless of marital status. Marriage and Civil Partnership information are not relevant to any features or functionality in the application.	NA
Pregnancy and maternity	No impact	People will have the same experience regardless of maternal status. Pregnancy and maternity information is not relevant to any features or functionality in the application.
To the extent that this may cause a temporary disability please see notes under ‘Disability’ above.	NA
Race	No impact	People will have the same experience regardless of race. Information about race is not relevant to any features or functionality in the application.	NA
Religion or Belief	No Impact	People will have the same experience regardless of religion or belief. Information about religion or belief is not relevant to any features or functionality in the application.	NA
Sex	No impact	People will have the same experience regardless of sex. Information about a person’s sex is not relevant to any features or functionality in the application.	NA
Sexual orientation	No impact	People will have the same experience regardless of sexual orientation. Information about sexual orientation is not relevant to any features or functionality in the application.	NA

4.5 LEDS Audit Product

Protected characteristic group	Potential for positive or negative impact?	Explanations & examples	Action to address negative impact
Age	No impact	All users will have the same experience regardless of age. We do not expect any of our users to be children or beyond the state retirement age.
Information about age is not specifically utilised in the Audit Product however may be retained in the Audit data store if present in the Primary Product conducting the LEDS activity.	To ensure data is protected there are three levels of Audit data (Summary, Action Summary and Action Details). Any age-related data pertaining to a record will only exist in the third tier of data. Access to this data is not presented as part of any summary or overview and is fully audited and auditable.
Disability	Potential impact	Whilst the application has been built in line with GDS and accessibility needs it may be that the specific needs of some users may not have been met.	Continuous user functionality testing is undertaken. A review of accessibility needs is planned for 2024 and an accessibility statement with details on how further assistance can be obtained will be produced. The Product also offers an ‘on behalf of’ function which can be used to provide users with an offline export of the data
Gender reassignment	No impact	All users will have the same experience regardless of gender. Gender status information is not relevant to any features or functionality in the application. Information about gender reassignment is not specifically utilised in the Audit Product however may be retained in the Audit data store if present in the Primary Product conducting the LEDS activity.	To ensure data is protected there are three levels of Audit data (Summary, Action Summary and Action Details). Any  gender reassignment data pertaining to a record will only exist in the third tier of data. Access to this data is not presented as part of any summary or overview and is fully audited and auditable.
Marriage and civil partnership	No impact	All users will have the same experience regardless of marital status. Marriage and Civil Partnership information is not relevant to any features or functionality in the application. Information about  Marriage and Civil Partnerships are not specifically utilised in the Audit Product however may be retained in the Audit data store if present in the Primary Product conducting the LEDS activity.	To ensure data is protected there are three levels of Audit data (Summary, Action Summary and Action Details). Any marital status data pertaining to a record will only exist in the third tier of data. Access to this data is not presented as part of any summary or overview and is fully audited and auditable.
Pregnancy and maternity	No impact	All users will have the same experience regardless of maternal status. Pregnancy and maternity information is not relevant to any features or functionality in the application. To the extent that this may cause a temporary disability please see notes under ‘Disability’ above. Information about pregnancy and maternity are not specifically utilised in the Audit Product however may be retained in the Audit data store if present in the Primary Product conducting the LEDS activity.	To ensure data is protected there are three levels of Audit data (Summary, Action Summary and Action Details). Any  pregnancy and maternity data pertaining to a record will only exist in the third tier of data. Access to this data is not presented as part of any summary or overview and is fully audited and auditable.
Race	No impact	All users will have the same experience regardless of race. Information about race is not relevant to any features or functionality in the application. Information about race is not specifically utilised in the Audit Product however may be retained in the Audit data store if present in the Primary Product conducting the LEDS activity.	To ensure data is protected there are three levels of Audit data (Summary, Action Summary and Action Details). Any race data pertaining to a record will only exist in the third tier of data. Access to this data is not presented as part of any summary or overview and is fully audited and auditable.
Religion or belief	No impact	All users will have the same experience regardless of religion or belief. Information about religion or belief is not relevant to any features or functionality in the application. Information about religion or beliefs are not specifically utilised in the Audit Product however may be retained in the Audit data store if present in the Primary Product conducting the LEDS activity.	To ensure data is protected there are three levels of Audit data (Summary, Action Summary and Action Details). Any data relating to religion or beliefs pertaining to a specific record will only exist in the third tier of data. Access to this data is not presented as part of any summary or overview and is fully audited and auditable.
Sex	No impact	All users will have the same experience regardless of sex. Information about a person’s sex is not relevant to any features or functionality in the application. Information about sex is not specifically utilised in the Audit Product however may be retained in the Audit data store if present in the Primary Product conducting the LEDS activity.	To ensure data is protected there are three levels of Audit data (Summary, Action Summary and Action Details). Any sex data pertaining to a record will only exist in the third tier of data. Access to this data is not presented as part of any summary or overview and is fully audited and auditable.
Sexual orientation	No impact	All users will have the same experience regardless of sexual orientation. Information about sexual orientation is not relevant to any features or functionality in the application. Information about sexual orientation is not specifically utilised in the Audit Product however may be retained in the Audit data store if present in the Primary Product conducting the LEDS activity.	To ensure data is protected there are three levels of Audit data (Summary, Action Summary and Action Details). Any sexual orientation data pertaining to a record will only exist in the third tier of data. Access to this data is not presented as part of any summary or overview and is fully audited and auditable.

5. In light of the overall policy objective, are there any ways to avoid or mitigate any of the negative impacts that you have identified above?

The LEDS Programme will be developed, in the first instance, with parity to the Police National Computer (PNC) as a main driver. There are a number of outstanding matters that are likely to subsequently define LEDS as a standalone entity, these include updates on;

• Retention and deletion of police data
• LEDS reference data
• The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill
• On-going steers from the Information Commissioners Office

6. Review date: 6th January 2025 (to be reviewed annually)

7. Declaration

I have read the available evidence and I am satisfied that this demonstrates compliance, where relevant, with Section 149 of the Equality Act and that due regard has been made to the need to: eliminate unlawful discrimination; advance equality of opportunity; and foster good relations.

SCS sign off:  

Name & Title: Emma Packenham, LEDS Programme Director

Directorate/Unit: LEDS Programme

Lead contact:

Date:

For monitoring purposes all completed EIA documents must be sent to the PSED@homeoffice.gov.uk
EIA enquiries must also be sent to PSED@homeoffice.gov.uk

Date sent to PSED Team: 21st November 2023