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You are in Human Genetics → Privacy and Discrimination → The UK Police National DNA Database → A brief legal history of the NDNAD

A brief legal history of the NDNAD

The following gives just a brief outline of the recent legal changes that have taken place in the way Police can take, store and use DNA samples.

1984:  The police were allowed to ask doctors to obtain a blood sample to use for DNA testing to help with the investigation of serious crimes, with the consent of volunteers. However, forensic DNA technology was still fairly limited in its use at this time.

1993:  The Royal Commission on Criminal Justice recommended that a forensic DNA database be established. The main driver was concern about public confidence in the criminal justice system as a whole, following a number of high-profile miscarriages of justice, for example the Birmingham Six, who had been jailed for planting an IRA bomb, but whose convictions were subsequently quashed. The database was proposed as a more objective form of forensic identification, with as much potential to eliminate suspects as to secure convictions.

1994:  The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act (CJPOA) enabled the NDNAD to be established. The Act changed the rules around collecting tissue samples by reclassifying saliva samples and mouth swabs as non-intimate and changing the circumstances in which a non-intimate sample could be taken without consent. This meant the police could now take samples without assistance from a doctor and could collect mouth scrapes and hair roots by force if necessary. It also changed the rules around the type of offence, from any 'serious, arrestable' offence to any 'recordable' offence (these include all but the most trivial offences) which greatly widened the pool of suspects. The law also stated that if a person was subsequently found guilty, their information could be stored on the database and their sample kept indefinitely; if they were not charged or were acquitted, the data and the sample had to be destroyed.

1997:  The Criminal Evidence (Amendment) Act allowed non-intimate samples to be taken without consent from individuals who were still in prison having been convicted for a sex, violence or burglary offence prior to the NDNAD being set up in 1995.

2001:  An extension to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) made amendments to allow all samples (and fingerprints) to be retained indefinitely, irrespective of whether the person had been acquitted. Another amendment also allowed samples to be retained indefinitely from volunteers taking part in mass screenings, on the condition that they had freely given their consent.

2004:  On 4 April 2004, police powers were extended once again to allow DNA profiles, fingerprints and other information to be taken without consent from anyone simply arrested on suspicion of any recordable offence. This includes all but the most trivial offences. The new legislation also allows the police to keep this information indefinitely, even if the person arrested is never charged. This gives the NDNAD the most extensive list of people in the world. No other police force has greater freedom to obtain, use and store genetic information from its citizens.

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