REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL concerning the exchange through the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) of information extracted from criminal records between the Member States
Date: 2017-06-29
Institutions: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, EU police cooperation, European judicial area, criminal record, exchange of information, information system, judicial cooperation in criminal matters in the EU

EN 

   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 29.6.2017  COM(2017) 341 final   REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL concerning the exchange through the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) of information extracted from criminal records between the Member States {SWD(2017) 242 final}  
 
 
1. Introduction 
The  European  Criminal  Records  Information  System  (ECRIS)  became  operational  in  April 
2012. It is regulated by Council Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA of 26 February 2009 on 
the  organisation  and  content  of  the  exchange  of  information  extracted  from  the  criminal 
record between Member States (Framework Decision)1, and the Council Decision of 6 April 
2009 on the establishment of the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) in 
application of Article 11 of Framework Decision 2009/316/JHA2.   

Its  purpose  is  to  improve  the  security  of  citizens  within  the  European  Area  of  Freedom, 
Security  and  Justice,  by  enabling  an  efficient  exchange  between  the  Member  States  of 
information on previous criminal convictions handed down by criminal courts in the EU. 

The present Report is the first statistical report of the Commission concerning the  exchange 
through  ECRIS  of  information  extracted  from  the  criminal  records  between  the  Member 
States, as foreseen in Art. 7 of Council Decision 2009/316/JHA. 

1.1. General principles of the ECRIS system  

ECRIS  is  based  on  a  decentralised  architecture,  interconnecting  the  Member  States  and 
enabling them to exchange efficiently criminal records information.  

  For  the  purposes  of  ECRIS,  each  Member  State  designates  a  Central  Authority  (one  or 
more) as a single point of contact and entrusts it with all responsibilities under the ECRIS 
Framework Decision.  

 

Information  is  exchanged  electronically  between  the  Central  Authorities  of  Member 
States,  using  a  standardised  format  allowing  for  an  efficient  and  immediately 
understandable communication in all EU languages and within short deadlines of 10 or 20 
days.  

  A Member State having convicted a citizen of another Member State is legally obliged to 
notify  as  soon  as  possible  through  ECRIS  information  related  to  the  conviction  to  the 
Member State(s)  of that person's nationality, including  subsequent  updates  (notifications 
on new convictions and updates). 

  The  Member  State  of  nationality  thus  maintains  a  central  repository  of  all  convictions 
handed down in the EU by criminal courts against its nationals. It is obliged to store and 
update  all  information  received  through  ECRIS,  and  to  provide  full  criminal  records 
information through ECRIS replies to requests) when requested by another Member State 
(requests for information). 

  The  conviction  information  must  be  exchanged  for  the  purpose  of  criminal  proceedings 
and,  if  so  permitted  by  national  law,  can  be  exchanged  for  other  purposes,  such  as 
administrative procedures, employment, licences, etc.  

  Although ECRIS is designed mostly to exchange information concerning EU nationals, it 
is also possible to exchange information on third country nationals and stateless persons 
(in the following: TCN) through this system. Supplementing legislation creating a central 
ECRIS-TCN system to support efficient exchanges through ECRIS on TCN was proposed 
by the Commission in the same package as this statistical report. 

1  
2  

OJ L 93, 7.4.2009, p. 23. 
OJ L 93, 7.4.2009, p. 33. 

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Under  the  Framework  Decision,  Member  States  were  obliged  to  implement  the  system  in 
legal and technical terms, interconnect electronically with each other, and start exchanges in 
line with the general principles described above, by 27 April 2012.  

1.2. Legal foundations of ECRIS and its statistics 

The  general  principles  governing  the  exchange  of  information  and  the  functioning  of  the 
system are regulated in Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA.   

Council Decision 2009/316/JHA established a standardised format for the electronic exchange 
between  the  Member  States  of  information  extracted  from  national  criminal  records,  in 
particular as regards information on the offence giving rise to the conviction, and information 
on  the  content  of  the  conviction.  It  also  established  other  general  and  technical  means  of 
implementation related to organising and facilitating the information exchange.  

The Council has also adopted further detailed rules on operating the ECRIS system, including 
its Business Analysis, detailed Technical Specifications and statistical information.3 

In  line  with  these  arrangements,  non–personal statistical  data  are  automatically  collected  by 
the  system  in  order  to  monitor  the  functioning  and  effectiveness  of  ECRIS,  as  well  as  the 
compliance of the Member States' exchanges with the ECRIS legal framework.  

The  ECRIS  Detailed  Technical  Specifications  currently  list  225  indicators  established  for 
ECRIS monitoring. These statistics are generated automatically by the system at national level 
and sent by the Member States to the European Commission on a monthly basis.  

Art. 7 of Council Decision 2009/316/JHA provides: 

"The Commission services shall regularly publish a report concerning the exchange, through 
ECRIS, of information extracted from the criminal record based in particular on the statistics 
referred  to  in  Article  6  (2).  This  report  shall  be  published  for  the  first  time  one  year  after 
submitting the report referred to in Article 13 (3) of the Framework Decision." 

The report on the implementation of Council Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA mentioned 
above  was  adopted  on  19  January  2016.4  The  Commission  decided  to  present  its  first 
statistical  report  in  accordance  with  Article  7  in  a  package,  along  with  a  proposal  for  a 
Regulation  establishing  the  European  Criminal  Records  Information  System  for  Third 
Country Nationals (ECRIS-TCN system)5, which will supplement the current ECRIS system. 

The present report gives an overview on the use and practical implementation of ECRIS since 
its ‘go live’ from April 2012 to 31 December 2016, with an emphasis on the year 2016. Its 
purpose is to present the compliance of the Member States' exchanges with the ECRIS legal 
framework and to identify any issues  regarding the efficiency of the system, with a view to 
remedying the situation.  

While the statistics presenting a general overview cover the full five year period of operation 
of  ECRIS,  the  comparative  statistical  data  on  all  Member  States,  as  well  as  the  individual 

3  

4  

5  

Art. 6(2) of  Council Decision 2009/316/JHA  foresees  adoption of  implementing  measures  for ECRIS 
by the Council, in particular the establishment of logging systems and procedures making it possible to 
monitor  the  functioning  of  ECRIS  and  the  establishment  of  non-personal  statistics  relating  to  the 
exchange through ECRIS of information extracted from criminal records. 
Report  from  the  Commission  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the  implementation  of 
Council Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA of 26 February 2009 on the organisation and content of the 
exchange of information extracted from criminal record between Member States, COM (2016) 6 final. 
COM(2017)344 final 

3 

 
 
                                                      
Member States' statistical tables in section 2 of the Annex only cover ECRIS exchanges in the 
years 2014-2016. The choice of the last three years of ECRIS operation for this analysis was 
motivated by the fact that in 2014 a substantial number of 25 interconnected Member States 
was  achieved,  and  thus  from  that  moment  on  the  statistics  can  be  considered  to  provide  a 
representative overview of the actual situation. 

The  report  is  based  on  the  statistics  generated  automatically  by  the  system  and  sent  to  the 
Commission by the Member States. From the 225 statistical indicators established for ECRIS, 
a  choice  was  made  in  order  to  publish  only  the  most  relevant  and  meaningful  statistical 
information.  

The  Member  States  were  also  requested  to  communicate  statistics  on  the  number  of 
convictions  of  nationals  of  other  Member  States  (EU  non-nationals)  handed  down  on  their 
territory, in order to be able to provide an overview of the implementation of the notification 
procedure.  

The  report  includes  conviction  data  received  from  24  Member  States.  The  Commission  did 
not receive data from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark and Slovenia.  

2. Main findings 

  All 28 Member States are active in ECRIS, but 24% of possible interconnections 

are missing 

After  five  years  of  ECRIS  operation,  all  28  Member  States  are  currently  connected  to 
ECRIS, with Slovenia and Portugal joining in January 2017. However, none of the Member 
States  is  exchanging  information  through  ECRIS  with  all  27  other  Member  States.  At 
the  end  of  2016,  only  76%  of  the  total  number  of  possible  interconnections  was 
established.  The  ultimate  goal  -  that  each  Member  State  is  connected  to  and  exchanges 
information through ECRIS with all the other Member States – is therefore yet to be achieved. 

  The number of messages exchanged reached 2 million in 2016 

From  the  300.000  messages  exchanged  by  all  interconnected  Member  States  by  the  end  of 
2012, the number reached nearly 2 million in 2016 with an average of 165.000 messages per 
month.  Currently,  yearly  notifications  on  new  convictions,  requests  and  replies  to 
requests amount roughly to 350.000 per category. The most active Member States in terms of 
total  volume  of  these  three  types  of  messages  sent  in  2016  were:  DE  (24.9%),  followed  by 
UK (13.7%), IT (7.7%), PL (6.6%) and RO (5.5%). 

  One reply in three reveals previous criminal convictions  

Since  the  first  year  of  ECRIS  operation,  31%  of  requests  for  information  on  previous 
convictions  of  a  person  were  replied  to  with  information  on  previous  criminal 
convictions. This means that in 31% of the requests the person concerned had already been 
convicted  one  or  more  times  elsewhere  in  the  Union.  This  proves  the  significant  value  of 
ECRIS  as  a  tool  for  obtaining  criminal  records  information.  In  2016,  over  105.000  replies 
contained information on previous criminal convictions. 

  Stabilising trend for notifications 

Since  2014,  with  25  interconnected  Member  States,  the  number  of  notifications  on  new 
convictions has gradually stabilised to reach 330.000 notifications in 2016. This follows a 
period of initial significant growth, new Member States joining the network and creating more 
interconnections. The number is expected to still increase, independent of the conviction rate, 
as the interconnection rate moves towards 100%. 

4 

 
 
  Rapid increase in requests for information and replies 

The  number  of  requests  for  information  and  replies  to  these  requests  has  increased 
rapidly during the last five years, reaching 364.000 requests and 350.000 replies in 2016. It 
is  a  positive  sign  of  rising  awareness  in  the  Member  States  of  the  need  to  use  ECRIS  to 
request  information  for  criminal  proceedings,  as  well  as  for  other  purposes  such  as 
recruitment,  in  particular  for  positions  involving  direct  and  regular  contact  with  children  in 
line with Directive 2011/93/EU6.  

  Significant  differences  between  the  Member  States'  ECRIS  activities  and 

workload 

Some Member States send considerably more  requests for information than they receive. 
In  2016,  this  concerned  DE,  UK,  AT  and  CZ.  Other  Member  States  are  confronted  with  a 
significant workload replying to requests, while they send fewer requests themselves: PL, 
RO, SK, LT, IT, BG, LV, HU, HR, IE, EL, EE. The workload for some other Member States 
is  produced  mostly  by  sending  a  high  number  of  notifications  on  new  convictions  to  the 
Member States of the offender's nationality, while sending fewer requests themselves: IT, BE, 
ES, FR, CY. 

  Not all convictions and updates are notified  

The most active Member States in terms of volume of sent notifications on new convictions in 
2016 were DE (29,7% of all such notifications sent), IT (19.0%), BE (13,6%), UK (9,9%), ES 
(9,0%) and FR (5,2%). 

By contrast, some Member States do not send notifications on new convictions at all (EL) 
or send only few notifications in relation to their EU non-national population7 (BG, EE, HR, 
LT, LV, MT, RO in 2016; BG, EE, LV, HR, LT in 2015; BG, EE, HR, LT, LV, RO, SK in 
2014). Failure to systematically and reliably notify convictions may result in offenders being 
able to escape their criminal past or to commit the same criminal offences again. 

Updates of conviction information sent constituted on average 27% of all notifications in 
2016. Some Member States did not send updates on previously sent notifications at all (BG, 
DK, EE, EL, LV, RO in 2016; BG, DK, FI, EL in 2015; DK, EE, FI, EL, HR, RO in 2014) or 
sent  a  low  volume    of  such  messages  (HR,  LT,  LU  in  2016;  EE,  HR,  LT,  LU,  LV,  RO  in 
2015; BG, HU, IE, LT, LU, LV, SK in 2014). Failure to update conviction information results 
in the processing of outdated and unrealiable conviction information by the Member State of 
nationality, including its dissemination.  

  ECRIS not always used to request information on previous convictions 

The  Member  States  which  sent  the  highest  volume  of  requests  in  2016  were:  DE  (38,6%), 
followed by UK (26,7%), CZ (10,1%), AT (6,9%), ES (3,7%) and FR (3,5%). However, some 
Member States did not send requests for information at all (EL) or  sent a low number of 
requests (BG, CY, HU, IT, MT, SK in 2016; BG, HU, IT, SK in 2015; BG, EE, HR, HU, IT, 
SK in 2014). This leads to the situation where criminal courts might pass judgements without 
knowlegde of previous convictions in other Member States, contrary to the requirements set 

6  

7 

Directive  2011/93/EU  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  13  December  2011  on 
combating  the  sexual  abuse  and  sexual  exploitation  of  children  and  child  pornography,  and  replacing 
Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA, OJ L 335, 17.12.2011, p. 1. 
See Eurostat-statistics: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/File:Non-
national_population_by_group_of_citizenship,_1_January_2016_(%C2%B9).png 

5 

 
 
                                                      
 
out in Framework Decision 2008/675/JHA8. Insufficient information on previous convictions 
will also prevent the use of reliable conviction information for other purposes than criminal 
proceedings (such as pre-employment checks) and thus lead to diminished crime-prevention. 

  Around 14.000 requests for information (3,9%) not responded to in 2016 

In  most  of  the  Member  States,  the  number  of  received  replies  was  slightly  lower  than  the 
number of sent requests for information,  with  an average  difference  around 3.9% in 2016. 
The  Member  States  which  did  not  reply  to  the  highest  percentage  of  requests  received  by 
them were: CY (66.1%), EL (34.9%), IT (20%) and LV (17.8%).  

  Almost 13.000 requests (3,6%) not responded to within legal deadline in 2016 

In  2016,  almost  13.000  requests  were  not  replied  to  within  the  legal  deadline.  This 
represents 3,6% of the total number of requests. The Member States having most problems 
to respect the deadlines are: EL (28,1% of requests received by EL not replied to within the 
deadline), FI (21,5%), EE (20,5%), RO (9,3%) and IT (5,28%). 

  ECRIS increasingly used for other purposes than criminal proceedings 

During  the  ECRIS  operation  period,  on  average  81%  of  all  requests  were  made  for  the 
purpose of criminal proceedings and 19 % for other purposes than criminal proceedings. 
The amount of requests for other purposes increased up to 22% in 2016, reaching 79.000 
requests. Requests from individual persons for information on their own criminal records 
account  for  the  highest  volume  of  requests  for  other  purposes  than  criminal  proceedings  – 
68% of all requests for other purposes and 15% of all requests made. 

  Current ECRIS rarely used for TCN 

On  average,  90%  of  all  requests  concern  EU  nationals  and  around  10%  concern  third 
country  nationals  and  stateless  persons.  The  amount  of  requests  for  information  on  TCN 
reached over 33.000 in 2016. Supplementing the ECRIS system with a dedicated centralised 
system for TCN, as the Commission proposes as part of the package including this report, is 
expected to lead to a substantial increase in requests on TCN.  

3. ECRIS exchanges in numbers 

3.1. Connected Member States 

A  Member  State  is  considered  connected  to  ECRIS  if  it  exchanges  criminal  records 
information  with  at  least  one  connected  partner.  To  date,  all  28  Member  States  are 
connected  to  ECRIS  and  exchange  criminal  records  information  with  at  least  one  other 
Member State, with the last Member States (SI and PT) having joined in January 2017. For 
the history of connections to the ECRIS network – see the Annex, Section 1.1. 

ECRIS is a decentralised system where all Member States should be interconnected with each 
other. The total possible number of interconnections in such a configuration is 756 (27*28). 
Although  all  Member  States  are  now  connected  to  ECRIS,  none  of  them  is  exchanging 
information through ECRIS with all the other 27 Member States.  

The  following  table  shows  for  each  Member  State  the  number  of  interconnections  in  April 
2017. 

8  

Council Framework Decision 2008/675/JHA on taking account of convictions in the Member States of 
European Union in the course of new criminal proceedings, OJ L 220, 15.8.2008, p. 32. 

6 

 
 
 
                                                      
The  ECRIS  system  started  off  with  173  interconnections  in  2012  -  out  of  756  possible 
interconnections  (with  28  MS  live).  At  the  end  of  2016,  the  fifth  year  of  operation  of  the 
system,  575  interconnections  were  established,  representing  76%  of  the  total  number  of 
possible interconnections and 88% of the operational interconnections (with SI and PT still 
not  connected  to  ECRIS  at  that  time).  For  the  evolution  of  the  number  of  interconnections 
over the years - see the Annex, section 1.1. 

In  2017,  four  Member  States  (AT,  ES,  UK  and  IE)  have  reached  the  highest  number  of 
operational interconnections (26). 

The  ultimate  goal  -  that  each  Member  State  is  connected  to  and  exchanges  information 
through ECRIS with all the other Member States – is therefore yet to be achieved. 

3.2. Total number of messages exchanged 

The  graph  below  illustrates  the  rapidly  growing  yearly  volume  of  messages  exchanged 
between  the  connected  Member  States  since  the  ECRIS  "go  live"  in  April  2012  until  31 
December 2016. When analysing the data concerning the year 2012, it needs to be borne in 
mind that there were only 8 months of activity in that year. 

From  the  300.000  messages  exchanged  by  all  interconnected  Member  States  by  the  end  of 
2012, the number reached nearly 2 million in 2016 with an average of 165.000 messages per 

7 

 
 
 
 
month. All types of messages are included in these volumes: notifications, updates, requests, 
replies, denials, other replies, exchanges of additional information, etc.  

The graph below presents the trend of notifications, requests and replies to requests over the 
five  years  of  ECRIS  operation.  Only  notifications  on  new  convictions  were  taken  into 
consideration here, without updates. Replies include request replies, request denials and other 
replies9.  

Currently, the notifications, requests and replies to requests roughly amount to 350.000 per 
year in each category.  

Since  2014,  with  25  Member  States  interconnected,  the  number  of  notifications  on  new 
convictions has been stabilising gradually, after an initial significant growth correlated with 
the  joining  of  new  Member  States  to  the  network  and  creating  more  interconnections.  This 
number 
the 
is  expected 
interconnections reach 100%.  

the  conviction  rate,  as 

independent  of 

increase, 

to  still 

In  contrast,  the  number  of  requests  for  information  and  the  related  replies  to  requests,  is 
increasing rapidly. This is  a  positive  sign  of rising  awareness in  the Member States  of the 
need to use ECRIS to request information in the course of criminal proceedings in order to be 
able to take account of previous convictions, in line with Framework Decision 2008/675/JHA. 
Also,  the  increasing  number  of  requests  for  information  for  other  purposes  than  criminal 
proceedings (e.g. employment, especially for positions involving regular contact with children 
in line with the Directive 2011/93/EU) contributes to this positive trend. 

3.3. Number of notifications, requests and replies per Member State 

The graph below illustrates the number of sent notifications on new convictions, sent requests 
for information and sent replies for all interconnected Member States in 2016. For the years 
2014 and 2015 - see the Annex, section 1.2. 

9

Other replies are for example replies with multiple persons found, with a person not being a national of 
the requested Member State, etc. 

8 

 
 
 
                                                      
  
The  most  active  Member  States  in  terms  of  total  volume  of  sending  these  three  types  of 
messages10 were: 

- in 2016: DE (24.9%), followed by UK (13.7%), IT (7.7%), PL (6.6%) and RO (5.5%). 

- in 2015: DE (25.6%), followed by UK (14.7%), IT (9.1%), PL (7.0%) and RO (5.6%). 

- in 2014: DE (28.7%), followed by IT (10.9%), UK (9.7%), FR (8.3%) and PL (6.8%). 

The  figures  demonstrate  significant  differences  between  the  Member  States'  ECRIS 
activities and workload. 

Some Member State request information considerably more times than they are requested to 
provide information: DE, UK, AT, and in 2016 also CZ. Others are confronted mostly with a 
significant workload of replying to requests, while they send fewer requests themselves: PL, 
RO, SK, LT, IT, BG, LV, HU, HR, IE, EL, EE. The workload for some other Member States 
is  produced  mostly  by  sending  high  volumes  of  notifications  on  new  convictions  to  the 
Member  States  of  the  offender's  nationality,  while  they  send  fewer  requests themselves: IT, 
BE, ES, FR, CY. 

3.4. Notifications 

The  graph  below  presents  the  volume  of  notifications  issued  by  all  interconnected  Member 
States in 2016, broken down by notifications on new convictions and notifications updating 
previously sent notifications. For the years 2014 and 2015 - see the Annex, section 1.3. 

10  

For  the  comparative  table  with  the  most  active  Member  States  in  terms  of  volume  of  sending 
notifications, requests and replies (separately per category) – see the Annex, section 1.2. 

9 

 
 
 
                                                      
The  volume  of  notifications  sent  varies  considerably  among  the  Member  States,  from 
nearly 100.000 (DE) to zero notifications on new convictions (EL) per year. There are mainly 
two factors to be taken into account in the analysis of these variations: the size of the country 
and the number of convictions of nationals of other Member States (further: EU non-national 
population). For detailed analysis of individual Member State statistics, please see the Annex, 
section 2. 

The most active Member States in terms of sending notifications on new convictions were: 

- in 2016: DE (29.7%), followed by IT (19.0%) , BE (13.6%), UK (9.9%), ES (9.0%) and FR 
(5.2%) 

- in 2015: DE (28.7%), followed by IT (19.8%), BE (12.5%), UK (11.4%), FR (6.3%) and 
ES (5.9%) 

- in 2014: DE (30.0%), followed by IT (20.8%), FR (11.2%), BE (8.4%), UK (7.9%) and ES 
(5.8%). 

Taking  into  consideration  all  sent  notifications,  including  updates,  the  above  classification 
will look quite similar, however with  ES advancing to the third position in 2016 and fourth 
position in 2014 and 2015. 

Sent notifications on new convictions and notifications on updates accounted respectively 
for  73,2%  to  26.8%  on  avarage  in  2016.  For  the  years  2014  and  2015  –  see  the  Annex, 
section 1.3. This proportion differs significantly among the Member States, from updates 
being twice as high as notifications (e.g. AT, PL), through almost equal amounts for both of 
these  categories  of  messages  (e.g.  ES,  NL)  to  updates  constituting  a  tiny  part  of  all 
notifications (e.g. BE, UK). For DE, which sends the highest number of all notifications, the 
updates amount to about 22% of all its notifications sent. 

Two problems were identified here on the basis of the detailed analysis of the statistical data.  

Firstly,  some  Member  States  do  not  send  notifications  on  new  convictions  at  all  (EL)  or 
send a very low volume of such notifications in relation to their EU non-national population 

10 

 
 
 
(BG, EE, HR, LT, LV, MT, RO in 2016; BG, EE, LV, HR, LT in 2015; BG, EE, HR, LT, LV, 
RO,  SK  in  2014).  As  a  result,  these  non-notified  convictions  were  not  registered  in  the 
Member  State(s)  of  nationality,  and  offenders  might  be  able  to  escape  the  consequences  of 
their criminal past. 

Secondly, some Member States do not send updates on their previously sent notifications at 
all (BG, DK, EE, EL, LV, RO in 2016; BG, DK, FI, EL in 2015; DK, EE, FI, EL, HR, RO in 
2014) or send a low volume of such messages (HR, LT, LU in 2016; EE, HR, LT, LU, LV, 
RO in 2015; BG, HU, IE, LT, LU, LV, SK in 2014). Failure to send updates by the convicting 
Member  State  results  in  the  processing  of  not  updated,  unrealiable  information  by  the 
Member State of nationality, including its dissemination. 

3.5. Requests for information 

The graph below compares the volume of requests for information sent by all interconnected 
Member States  in  2016 with  the volume of  replies received to  these  requests. For the years 
2014 and 2015 - see the Annex, section 1.4. 

The  volume  of  issued  requests  for  information  varies  considerably  among  Member 
States, from 140.000 (DE) to zero requests (EL) per year. The main factor to be taken into 
account in the analysis of these variations is the number of nationals of other Member States 
residing in a given Member State. 

The most active Member States in terms of issued requests were: 

- in  2016:  DE (38.6%),  followed by UK (26.7%), CZ (10.1%),  AT (6.9%), ES (3.7%)  and 
FR (3.5%) 

- in 2015: DE (40.0%), followed by UK (29.4%), AT (8.2%), FR (4.5%), ES (4.0%) and CZ 
(3.3%) 

- in 2014: DE (45.3%), followed by UK (18.7%), AT (13.7%), FR (7.6%), CZ (4.1%) and 
NL (2.8%) 

Some Member States do not send requests at all (EL) or send a low number of requests in 
relation to their EU non-national population (BG, CY, HU, IT, MT, EE, HR, LV, RO, SK in 
2016; BG, HU, IT, EE, HR, LV, RO, CY, SK in 2015; BG, EE, HR, HU, IT, LV, CY, SK in 

11 

 
 
 
2014).  This  leads  to  the  situation  where  criminal  courts  might  pass  judgements  without 
knowledge of convictions handed down in other Member States, contrary to the requirements  
set out in Framework Decision 2008/675/JHA  on taking account of previous convictions in 
the  course  of  new  criminal  proceedings.  In  addition,  the  preventive  effect  of  requesting 
criminal  records  certificates  for  other  purposes  than  criminal  proceedings,  such  as 
employment, will be diminished. 

It  can  be  also  concluded  from  the  above  data  that  not  all  requests  for  information  are 
responded to. In most of the cases, the number of received replies is slightly lower than the 
number of sent requests, with an average difference of around 3,9% in 2016. In case of the 
Member  States  most  active  in  sending  requests,  7%  of  DE  requests  (9.577),  4%  of  AT 
requests (869) and 2% of UK requests (1.709) in 2016 were never responded to. 

3.6. Replies to requests 

The graph below illustrates the volume of replies sent by all interconnected Member States in 
2016  in  comparison  to  the  volume  of  corresponding  requests  for  information  received  by 
them. For the years 2014 and 2015 - see the Annex, section 1.5. 

The  volume  of  requests  received  and  sent  replies  corresponding  to  them  varies 
significantly  among  the  Member  States,  from  62.000  (PL)  to  63  requests  (MT)  per  year. 
There are mainly two factors to be taken into account in the analysis of these variations: the 
overall  population  per  Member  State,  and  the  number  of  its  nationals  residing  in  other 
Member  States.  For  a  detailed  analysis  of individual  Member  State  statistics,  please  see  the 
Annex, section 2. 

The Member States which received the highest amount of requests for information, and, as a 
consequence,  which  responded  to  the  highest  amount  of  requests  in  absolute  terms  (not 
necessarily the highest in proportion to what they received) were: 

-  in  2016:  PL  (17.4%  of  all  replies),  followed  by  RO  (16.2%),  SK  (9.1%),  DE  (6.2%),  IT 
(5.1%) and FR (4.6%) 

- in 2015: PL (18.9%), followed by RO (17.9%), DE (7.5%), IT (6.5%), LT (5.2%) and FR 
(4.9%) 

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- in 2014: PL (20.0%), followed by RO (13.0%), DE (9.9%), IT (8.5%), FR (5.2%) and LT 
(5.0%) 

While all Member States respond to requests in general, not all requests for information are 
responded  to.  In  most  of  the  cases,  the  number  of  sent  replies  is  slightly  lower  than  the 
number of received requests for information, with on average around 3.9% in 2016.  

In case of the Member States which received the highest amount of requests in 2016, IT did 
not  respond to  20.4%  of requests received by them (5,579), FR to  3.9% (657),  DE to 2.5% 
(552), PL to 1.9% (1,174), RO to 1.7% (970) and SK to 0.1% (47).  

In 2016, the Member States with the highest percentage of requests not replied to were: CY 
(66.1% of the requests received by them), EL (34.9%), IT (20,4%) and LV (17.8%).  

3.7. Replies not meeting legal deadlines 

Another  issue  is  that  some  requests  are  not  replied  to  within  the  legal  deadlines.  The  table 
below presents an overview for all Member States of the volumes of replies not meeting the 
legal deadlines in 2016.  

13 

MSRequests ReceivedRequests with expired deadline to reply% of Requests receivedReplies sent after deadline% of Requests receivedAT10.05010,01%00,00%BE7.202440,61%620,86%BG13.175410,31%360,27%CY685162,34%13419,56%CZ12.89700,00%00,00%DE22.4015002,23%1060,47%DK2.600823,15%10,04%EE3.20665620,46%00,00%ES9.867460,47%00,00%FI1.52032621,45%10,07%FR16.8745063,00%80,05%UK13.2291961,48%1741,32%EL6.9131.94428,12%00,00%HR7.60700,00%240,32%HU11.13600,00%430,39%IE10.09570,07%1381,37%IT22.4301.1845,28%2.1539,60%LT15.358130,08%00,00%LU1.912190,99%00,00%LV7.861871,11%4.19853,40%MT6300,00%23,17%NL12.68400,00%130,10%PL62.1031.9443,13%3.0564,92%RO57.8065.3639,28%3.5356,12%SE3.20310,03%1183,68%SK31.86410,00%80,03%TOTAL364.74112.9773,56%13.8103,79% 
 
 
 
In  2016,  around  13.000  requests  were  not  replied  to  within  the  legal  deadline.  This 
represents 3,6% of the total number of requests. The Member States having most problems 
to  respect  the  deadlines  were:  EL  (28,1%  of  requests  with  expired  deadline  to  reply),  FI 
(21,5%),  EE  (20,5%),  RO  (9,3%)  and  IT  (5,28%).  In  terms  of  replies  sent  after  the  legal 
deadline,  27,33%  of  LT  replies  were  sent  after  the  deadline  (4,198),  21,33%  of  IE  replies 
(2,153), 19,56% of CY replies (134), 6,12% of RO replies (3,535) and 4,92% of PL replies 
(3,056).   

3.8. Requests for criminal proceedings and other purposes 

The graphs below represent the proportion between the requests for criminal proceedings and 
for other purposes than criminal proceedings – from 2012 until 2016. 

During  the  ECRIS  operation  period  on  average  81%  of  all  requests  were  made  for  the 
purpose of criminal proceedings and 19 % for other purposes. The amount of requests for 
other purposes reached 79.000 in 2016. 

In the years 2012- 2014 the percentage of requests for other purposes was stable. The increase 
up to 22% in 2016 was caused mainly by the increasing number of requests for the purposes 
of  recruitment  for  professional  or  organised  voluntary  activities  involving  direct  and 
regular  contact  with  children,  in  implementation  of  Directive  2011/93/EU.  Such  requests 
represented  nearly  8.000  requests  in  2016  or  10%  of  all  requests  for  other  purposes.  In 
comparison, the volume of these requests was negligible (7 requests) in 2012. 

In 2016, most requests for other purposes than criminal proceedings were made by individual 
persons to obtain information on their own criminal records - 68% of all requests for other 
purposes  and  15%  of  all  requests  made.  The  next  highest  number  of  requests  related  to 

14 

 
 
 
 
 
 
requests from a competent administrative authority for non-criminal proceedings (14% of the 
requests  for  other  purposes  and  3,1%  of  all  requests  made),  requests  for  recruitment  in 
accordance  with  Directive  2011/93/EU  (respectively:  9.9%  and  2,2%)  and  requests  for 
obtaining a permit to carry weapons (respectively: 3,5% and 0,8%). 

Requests for the important purpose of obtaining a different nationality constituted only around 
1,4% of all requests for other purposes and 0,3% of all requests. 

For  more  details  on  the  volumes  of  requests  for  various  categories  of  purposes  in  the  years 
2014-2016 - see the Annex, section 1.6. 

3.9. Requests concerning EU nationals and TCN 

The  graphs  below  represent  the  proportion  between  requests  concerning  EU  nationals  and 
TCN – per year11 and on average during the whole ECRIS operation period. 

On average, 90% of all requests concern EU nationals and around 10% concern TCN. The 
share of requests for stateless persons is marginal (0,03%). 

11  

See also a table in the Annex, section 1.7. 

15 

 
 
 
  
 
 
                                                      
In the first year of ECRIS operation, the percentage of requests concerning TCN was very low 
(5%).  In  2013  this  percentage  doubled  and  has  since  then  remained  steady.  The  number  of 
requests for information on TCN reached over 33.000 in 2016.  

Supplementing  legislation  proposed  by  the  Commission    together  with  this  report  will 
improve the ECRIS system with regard to TCN by introducing a dedicated centralised system 
allowing  for  efficient  identification  of  the  Member  State(s)  holding  criminal  records 
information on TCN. This measure is expected to lead to a considerable increase of requests 
on TCN.  

3.10. Replies containing conviction information 

In  the  graphs  below  information  is  given  on  the  proportion  of  the  replies  to  requests 
containing one or more convictions, replies with no convictions and other replies yearly12, and 
on average during the ECRIS operation period. 

Since the first year of ECRIS operation, 31% of replies contained information on previous 
convictions.  This  means  that  in  31%  of  the  cases  the  person  concerned  had  been  already 
convicted  one  or  more  times,  proving  the  value  of  ECRIS  as  a  tool  for  obtaining  criminal 
records  information.  In  2016  this  represented  over  105.000  replies  including  conviction 

12  

See footnote 9. See also the table in the Annex, section 1.8. 

16 

 
 
  
 
                                                      
information.  The  replies  with  no  conviction  information  constituted  on  average  63%,  and 
other replies 6% over the last five years. 

17