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.
Certain individuals may be approached on more that one occasion to give DNA samples. Allowing samples to be retained could offer significant savings in terms of time and money. A. Fingerprints and DNA samples can be taken from anyone who is convicted of a recordable offence. It is up to the police to decide how to target their resources. A. Allowing registered nurses to take the whole range of intimate samples, simply reflects their expanding role across many different medical environments.