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6 Oct 2008 : Column 138W—continued
John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many violent offence cases in (a) Leeds West constituency, (b) Leeds metropolitan district and (c) Yorkshire and Humberside the national DNA database was used to match suspects in each year since figures are available. [213354]
Meg Hillier: Information on the National DNA database (NDNAD) is recorded and held on the basis of the police force which took the DNA sample. It is not available by parliamentary constituency or by local government authority area.
The table gives details of the number of violent offences in which a crime scene sample profile has matched with one or more subject profiles in each of the years since the 2002-03 financial year, for Humberside police, North Yorkshire police, South Yorkshire police
and West Yorkshire police. Figures are not available for the years prior to 2002.
‘Violent offences’ cover the offences murder/manslaughter, attempted murder, other suspicious death, wounding and less serious assault.
| Humberside | North Yorkshire | South Yorkshire | West Yorkshire | Total | |
| Note: Some of the offence codes used on the NDNAD cover more than one of the recorded crime classifications e.g. murder/manslaughter. | |||||
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the prison population in England and Wales has a profile on the national DNA database. [219355]
Meg Hillier: The purpose of the National DNA database (NDNAD) is to match DNA profiles taken from individuals with those taken from crime scenes. It therefore holds only the information necessary for this function, and does not contain criminal records or information on whether those on it are in prison. There are, however, good reasons for believing that the great majority of the prison population has a profile on the NDNAD. Police forces have had the power to retain DNA taken from those convicted of recordable offences since the establishment of the DNA database in 1995. For the first few years this power was exercised in relation to more serious offenders, but from 2000 onwards additional funding was made available under the DNA Expansion Programme to make it standard practice to take samples from all offenders. Since the extension of powers to take DNA samples to all those arrested for recordable offences, taking a DNA sample in the custody suite has become routine procedure. In addition, two prisoner sampling projects have been undertaken, most recently in 2003, to take DNA from any prisoner who had not already been sampled, for example because they had been imprisoned before DNA sampling was widely practiced.
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 8 January 2008, Official Report, column 454W, on genetics: databases, how many people have had their DNA profile removed from the national DNA database since January 2008. [220917]
Meg Hillier: Between 1 January and 31 August 2008, 148 subject profile records were deleted from the NDNAD under the exceptional case procedure (i.e. following a request to the chief officer of the responsible force from the person concerned). This covers records loaded by English and Welsh forces only.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many (a) children and (b) adults resident in the non-metropolitan county of Hampshire had their DNA recorded on police files in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area; [222293]
(2) how many (a) children and (b) adults resident in Southampton had their DNA recorded on police files in each of the last five years. [222294]
Meg Hillier: Information held on the National DNA database (NDNAD) is available on the basis of the police force which added the DNA profile, not the address of the person sampled. Information is, therefore, not available on the number of residents of Southampton and the different local authorities in non-metropolitan Hampshire who have had a DNA profile added. Information is, however, available on the number of profiles added by Hampshire constabulary in the last five years, as shown in the following table. These do not necessarily relate to residents of Hampshire.
| Hampshire constabulary | ||
| Profiles loaded taken from: | ||
| Aged under 18 at time profile loaded | Aged 18 and over at time profile loaded | |
The number of profiles is not the same as the number of individuals. This is because a number of subject profiles on the NDNAD are replicates, that is, a profile for a person has been loaded to the NDNAD on more than one occasion. This may arise for a number of reasons, such as a person giving a different name on different occasions they are arrested, or because of upgrading of profiles from the SGM to the SGM Plus profiling system. It is estimated that 13.3 per cent. of the subject profiles held on the entire NDNAD are replicates. However, this rate may vary between police forces, so figures for the number of individuals are not given for particular forces.
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many people had DNA samples stored on the National DNA database at the most recent date for which figures are available; [222730]
(2) how many people had a DNA profile on the National DNA database in each of the last 12 months, broken down by (a) sex and (b) ethnic origin. [222731]
Meg Hillier: As at 17 September 2008, there were 4,991,871 subject profiles retained on the National DNA database (NDNAD) which had been added by English and Welsh police forces, which equates to an estimated 4,327,952 individuals. The number of profiles is not the same as the number of individuals. This is because a number of subject profiles on the NDNAD are replicates, that is, a profile for a person has been loaded to the NDNAD on more than one occasion. This may arise for a number of reasons, such as a person giving a different name on different occasions they are arrested, or because of upgrading of profiles.
Table 1 shows the number of subject profiles loaded to the NDNAD by English and Welsh police forces in
each of the last 12 months, broken down by gender. ‘Unassigned’ means that no gender was recorded by the police officer who took the sample.
Table 2 shows the number of subject profiles loaded to the NDNAD by English and Welsh police forces in each of the last 12 months, broken down by ethnic appearance. Ethnic appearance is based on the judgment of the police officer taking the sample as to which of six broad ethnic appearance categories the person is considered to belong. ‘Unknown’ means that no ethnic appearance was recorded by the officer taking the sample.
| Table 1 | |||||||||||||
| 2007 | 2008 | ||||||||||||
| Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep( 1) | |
| (1) 1 to 16 September 2008 | |||||||||||||
| Table 2 | |||||||||||||
| 2007 | 2008 | ||||||||||||
| Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep( 1) | |
| (1) 1 to 16 September 2008 | |||||||||||||
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