WE live in an age where people often move from one region to another. It is an age in which police authorities need access to a national database to conduct checks on individuals.

It is an age where technology is capable of giving police authorities instant access to such a database.

Sadly, it is an age the 43 police forces of England and Wales have chosen to ignore.

Thus far, they have preferred to overlook the huge advantages technology has brought them for the local accountability and operational independence they treasure.

Had there been co-operation, then information on Ian Huntley would have been stored by Humberside Police and made readily available to other forces.

Had there been co-operation, Huntley would not have been given a job as a school caretaker ... and Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman may have still been alive today.

A national system allowing intelligence to be shared more effectively is long overdue. It is scandalous that it has taken the murder of two young girls for such a system to be established.

We share Sir Michael Bichard's concerns that more than just Huntley may have slipped through the net.

Humberside Police bears the brunt of the criticism for shortcomings in vetting procedures, but the findings of the report relate to other forces.

However, the position of Humberside's Chief Constable David Westwood is untenable. His insistence, after the Soham trial, that his force had erased Huntley's records because of the Data Protection Act was a gross error of judgement.

It amounted to a failure in policing, not IT, and therefore a matter for which he must take full responsibility.