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11 Oct 2007 : Column 708W—continued
Emergency Calls
John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the centralised emergency services number 999 following the impact of the recent week's events on the number of calls; and if she will make a statement. [153572]
Mr. Timms: I have been asked to reply.
Operational issues relating to the 999 service fall to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Officials from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform played an active role in the response by the Telecoms industry to the flooding during the summer. I followed the situation closely and met representatives of the telecommunications industry and some of the businesses affected by the floods. One of the key objectives of the telecoms industry response was to maintain the 999 service and the availability of the service to the public was not seriously affected by the conditions. The situation did lead to increased demand on the service and the emergency services were pressed in handling this increased number of calls.
Foreign Workers: Romania
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she next plans to assess revising restrictions on workers from Romania and Bulgaria wishing to work in the United Kingdom. [155838]
Mr. Byrne: The Government are carrying out a stock-take of the restrictions on workers from Romania and Bulgaria, and have committed themselves to making an announcement within 12 months of their coming into effect.
Genetics: Databases
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been added to the National DNA Database in each month since its inception, broken down by (a) category of offence and (b) stage reached in the criminal justice system; and if she will make a statement. [156284]
Meg Hillier: The number of profiles relating to individuals added to the database each month for all police forces since its foundation in 1995 is shown in the following table.
A certain number of profiles held on the NDNAD are replicates, i.e. a profile for a person has been loaded on more than one occasion (one reason for this is that the person gave different names, or different versions of their name, on separate arrests). At present the replication rate is 13.7 per cent., i.e. the number of people whose details are loaded is 13.7 per cent. fewer than the number of profiles. However, as the replication rate has varied over time, an exact figure for the number of people who have been added to the database in each month since 1995 cannot be given.
The National DNA Database records the DNA profile for a particular individual. It does not hold data on arrest and criminal records. This information is held on the Police National Computer. To produce figures for the category of offence in relation to which the DNA sample was taken would require cross-searching of PNC and the NDNAD, which could be done only at disproportionate cost.
For the same reason, it is not possible to give precise figures for the stage in the criminal justice system at which someone had a DNA sample taken. However, under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, the police have the power to take DNA and fingerprints from anyone arrested for a recordable offence and detained in a police station, and retain them indefinitely; and taking a DNA sample is now a normal part of handling of arrested persons in the custody suite. So it is expected that in most cases the sample would have been taken when the person was being dealt with in the custody suite after arrest.
| Profiles loaded | Subject |
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