A. Inspectors play a central management and command role in today's police service and can take on a wider range of PACE decisions. They are often the people on the spot and their ability to take these decisions will lead to more flexible policing. The new provisions will only allow for limited trials. Nationwide changes to the Codes will still require a full process of Parliamentary consideration. A. Fingerprints and DNA profiles are useful and objective forms of evidence that can be used to prove guilt or establish innocence.
Law abiding individuals have nothing to fear.
This measure will bring DNA and fingerprint evidence in line with other forms of evidence that the police are allowed to keep. The fingerprint and DNA databases are registered with the Data Protection Registrar and information stored on them is covered by data protection legislation. Additional safeguards are afforded by the clauses in this Bill which make it clear that this information can only be used for the prevention and detection of crime, the investigation of an offence and the conduct of a prosecution. These changes would allow samples or fingerprints given voluntarily, for the purposes of elimination to be retained and used with the donor's written consent. Police identify the target groups that are asked to give DNA samples for mass screens.