Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, this amendment concerns the National DNA Database. In Committee, in response to considerable criticism from many quarters, the Government withdrew the provisions allowing them to amend the rules and procedures of the DNA database by means of secondary legislation. We supported them in that act. Those clauses would have established no timetable for the implementation of any changes, would have exposed a crucially important piece of our criminal justice system to long-term inconsistency and uncertainty, and would have given Parliament no chance to do anything but approve any Statutory Instrument that the Government finally saw fit to produce. Such a way forward was clearly unacceptable to the House, and I am extraordinarily glad that the Minister drew that conclusion. However, leaving the entire question to the next Session, as the Government are trying to do, is equally unacceptable. The Government claim that they have run out of time to insert proper primary legislative provisions. In our last debate on the matter, the Minister said that he felt that the Government were damned if they did and damned if they did not. The truth is that the consultation on this has been considerably longer than he made out then. I remind noble Lords that the Marper judgment was a year ago, that the Government's consultation period ended months ago, and that any difficulties surrounding the detail of what they wish to implement are partly of their own making. The Government indicated in their consultation that they wanted to keep the profiles of any individual arrested, but not convicted, for six years and to keep the profiles of individuals arrested in relation to serious violent or sexual crimes, but not convicted, for 12 years. The Government have clearly not grasped the fundamental principle behind objections to the current system. Apart from the most exceptional cases, where a person is connected with but not convicted of a sex or a violent crime, there really can be no excuse to retain the profile of an individual who has not been convicted. Even in those exceptional cases, where there is a genuine case for retaining people’s profiles despite the absence of conviction, the Government’s recommendations are at odds with the evidence. We know that repeat offending is likely to take place within the comparatively short period of up to five years. My amendment would replicate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland the same system that has been running successfully in Scotland for three years. Not only is that system well established, it has been scrutinised, reviewed and consulted upon, and it has proved its worth. It also meets the requirements of the European Court of Human Rights ruling and is, frankly, more effective than its larger counterpart here in the south. The Government’s own reports identify that the Scottish database has a higher success rate in matching profiles taken from crime scenes to profiles on the database, at a rate of 68 per cent as compared to 52 per cent. It is also well known that the number of detected crimes in England and Wales in which a DNA match has been available has fallen year-on-year, despite the fact that the National DNA Database holds more profiles than the Scottish database and is growing with every month. What accounts for that difference? As I have said, the Scottish system is in keeping with the criminological data on reoffending, which shows that repeat offending is likely to take place within a comparatively short period. That evidence has been used in the context of serious crimes to determine the retention, for a limited period, of samples from individuals who have had a connection with a crime, even if they were not convicted. It is clear that here is a tried and tested system which is immeasurably better that the one currently in operation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We should implement it as soon as possible. To put off resolution of this issue yet again would be wrong. The Government have, if I might put it this way, avoided listening even to their own expert advisory bodies on this matter for some years. Ever since the Marper case they have being adding tens of thousands of samples to the database every month. There is no guarantee that any Bill introduced in the next Session will be able to complete its progress through both Houses before a general election. We on these Benches take the view that this House has a window of opportunity now and that we ought to seize it. The Government have kicked the matter of the database into the long grass again and again, and for long enough. We do not wish to see that happen again. This amendment would allow us to tackle crime more effectively and, at the same time, to restore the fundamental rights of individuals. I beg to move.