Written question asked by Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 19 November 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 21 November 2007. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern (Labour) on Monday, 21 January 2008 on behalf of the Home Office.

Genetics: Databases

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the cost to date of removing errors from the National DNA Database.

Answer: A number of procedures carried out by police forces, forensic suppliers and the National DNA Database Custodian's staff are in place to ensure that information is recorded as accurately as possible on the National DNA Database. These procedures are designed to ensure as far as possible that errors are not included on the database in the first place rather than removing them once they are on. It is not possible to disaggregate the costs of these procedures from the general costs of work done by these organisations.

Secondary information