Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 10 July 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 12 July 2007. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern (Labour) on Wednesday, 25 July 2007 on behalf of the Home Office.

DNA Database

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 26 April 2007 to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam, Official Report, column 1234W, on the DNA Database, (1) on how many occasions a positive match against one of the individuals recorded in the database has been made in relation to a police investigation in each of the last five years;
Answer

The purpose of the National DNA Database (NDNAD) is to hold a record of a person's DNA which can be matched against DNA taken from crime scenes. The NDNAD only reports matches between DNA profile records based on DNA profile compatibility, and sends them to police forces for the use in an investigation. It does not hold data on arrests, charges and convictions. Such information is held on the Police National Computer (PNC).The NDNAD does not hold data on reported matches and their outcomes (sanction detections). Obtaining this information would require cross searching of records held on the PNC against the NDNAD, and then contacting each police force that received the DNA match to ascertain the outcome. This information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.It is not possible to provide details of the number of searches made of the National DNA Database (NDNAD) in each of the last five years. Each time a subject or crime stain profile is loaded onto the NDNAD it is searched against all the retained profiles. No record has been kept of the number of searches but thousands of these searches are made of the NDNAD every day.In the last five years the following matches have been recorded:

(i) Matches where a crime scene was linked with one or more subjects
Number
2006-07 42,208
2005-06 44,611
2004-05 40,879
2003-04 39,335
2002-03 43,904
(ii) Matches where a crime scene was linked to another crime scene
Number
2006-07 3,349
2005-06 4,237
2004-05 4,349
2003-04 2,816
2002-03 3,258

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
149718; 463 c1171-2W
Session
2006-07
Related items
DNA Database
Thursday, 26 April 2007
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects
Databases Genetics
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk