No shared operational identifier or mandatory data standard across criminal justice agencies

Police forces, the CPS, HMCTS, prisons and probation run separate case systems with no common person or case identifier in live operations. MoJ's Data First programme (funded by ADR UK/ESRC) links justice datasets (magistrates', Crown Court, prisons, probation, offender assessment), but retrospectively, de-identified, for accredited researchers only. The CJS Data Improvement Programme (MoJ/Home Office) promotes a 'unified approach' but has no statutory force; HMCTS's Common Platform covers courts only and its rollout was troubled. Consequence: no agency can track a case end-to-end in real time, attrition (e.g. victim withdrawal between charge and trial) is measured by periodic linkage studies rather than operationally, and cross-agency performance scorecards depend on manual reconciliation. This underpins several other gaps here: a whole-system inspectorate and a capacity mechanism both need this data layer.

You cannot manage a backlog you cannot see. Fragmented data hides where the 80,000-case queue actually sits, prevents victims being told case status, and forces policy (sentencing, remand, diversion) to be made on lagged, unlinked statistics. It is the enabling capability for nearly every other justice reform.

A statutory duty (in the next criminal justice bill) mandating common data standards and a single cross-CJS case/person identifier for police, CPS, courts, prisons and probation, with a published cross-system scorecard; funded expansion of Data First into a near-real-time operational linkage service under appropriate governance.

// State-led: Instrument: statutory data-standards duty in next criminal justice bill; Data First expansion needs MoJ funding and governance.

no shared identifier lets any agency track a case end-to-end in real time, hiding where the backlog sits and blocking nearly every other reform, but nothing dates the fix.