Criminal justice system—reliability and integration of data

Tabled Report 14: 2016–17

Tabled date

2017-04-26

Report year

2016-17

Justice and public order

Entities audited

Not identified in the published HTML audit scope.

Recommendations

1. QAO's text Addressee not identified in the HTML

   Improves its offence standards and classification guidelines. (Chapter 2)

   Improvements are to include clarifying the definitions of offences and the rules and examples for classifying and re-classifying offences.

2. QAO's text Addressed to: Strengthens its independent quality assurance processes for data capture, classification, amending, updating, and reporting of crime data. (Chapter 2) Improvements are to include clarifying the definitions of offences and the rules and examples for classifying and re-classifying offences. Strengthening quality assurance

   Strengthens its independent quality assurance processes for data capture, classification, amending, updating, and reporting of crime data. (Chapter 2)

   Improvements are to include clarifying the definitions of offences and the rules and examples for classifying and re-classifying offences.

   Strengthening quality assurance should have regard to:

   • developing and implementing a quality assurance framework and guidelines
   • regularly auditing and reporting on the quality, completeness, and accuracy of QPRIME data and data classification
   • identifying types of data and practices at risk of error or manipulation and ensuring appropriate controls are in place to ensure validity
   • monitoring the data and data trends to identify and check for changes which may indicate poor practice or manipulation
   • ensuring accountable and independent decision-making where issues or disputes arise around the data or the status of a report.

3. QAO's text Addressed to: trains all staff responsible for crime data integrity and quality appropriately. (Chapter 2) Staff

   trains all staff responsible for crime data integrity and quality appropriately. (Chapter 2)

   Staff should be trained in the Queensland recording guidelines, national crime recording standard manual, and the Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification.

   We recommend that the Queensland Police Service and the Public Safety Business Agency:

4. QAO's text Addressee not identified in the HTML

   ensure there are appropriate guidelines, policy, and training for reporting, classifying, and managing crime statistics. (Chapter 2)

5. QAO's text Addressed to: the Department of Justice and Attorney‑General

   include in reported crime statistics detail of what is included and excluded from the statistics. (Chapter 2)

   For example, noting that cleared offences includes both solved and withdrawn offences will improve the reader's understanding of what this measure is reporting.

   We recommend that the Department of Justice and Attorney‑General:

6. QAO's text Addressed to: the Queensland Police Service, the Department of Justice and Attorney‑General and the Public Safety Business Agency

   reviews its quality assurance practices for data extraction scripts for reporting of corrective services measures. (Chapter 2)

   We recommend that the Queensland Police Service, the Department of Justice and Attorney‑General and the Public Safety Business Agency:

7. QAO's text Addressed to: the Queensland Police Service, the Department of Justice and Attorney‑General and the Public Safety Business Agency

   collaborate with relevant agencies and stakeholders to progress integrating the criminal justice system. (Chapter 3)

   We recommend that the Queensland Police Service, the Department of Justice and Attorney‑General and the Public Safety Business Agency:

    

Authoritative report — Queensland Audit Office

Report PDF on QAO