Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, I will try to be brief in addressing the issues, given that we have less than 45 minutes to complete Report stage. First, on the question of delay, the judgment in S and Marper came two weeks before the Policing and Crime Bill was introduced. It came as a surprise, not least because it overturned a unanimous decision of this House and the judiciary. It obviously did not leave enough time for detailed legislative proposals to be worked into the Bill. We consulted the public over the summer and received over 500 responses. We considered the contents of those responses, as well as the report of the House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. We were severely criticised for seeking to provide a secondary legislative channel to deal with this matter urgently after the passage of the Bill. That criticism, which was widespread in the House and upheld in Committee, persuaded the Government to withdraw the proposal to use secondary legislation and to give a commitment that we would bring the issue back at the earliest possible opportunity in new legislation. We have considered the merits of adopting a retention framework along the lines of that used in Scotland. If that framework is not mirrored, it is the formulation that arises in these amendments. The initial evidence from the consultation document issued in May suggests that the seriousness of the initial offence for which a person is arrested is not a good indicator of the seriousness of subsequent offences with which that person may be associated. Often, profiles that are ultimately linked to murder cases were originally taken for drug cases. Therefore, if we were to adopt a policy of retaining profiles only where an individual was arrested for a serious or violent offence, as applies in Scotland, we would risk missing numerous, possibly vital, detections. We remain convinced that the biometrics of all those who have DNA and fingerprints taken on arrest should be retained for a finite period, which represents a proportionate response to the potential risk to public safety. We have done, and continue to do, considerable further work on what these periods might be and we will bring forward our substantive proposals very soon. I have addressed the concerns expressed with regard to enabling powers. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, that the look of bewilderment on my countenance and that of my noble friend Lord West was due to the fact that no formal letter has yet been received at the Home Office. Therefore, we have no answers, because no questions have been put to us formally. I cannot add anything to that. However, given the criticism that was made of an attempt to introduce this measure via secondary legislation, when the government proposals are available a very full discussion will be held on them in both Houses, as this is a very serious issue. We have no intention of avoiding our responsibility in S and Marper. We wish to address that at the earliest possible opportunity. In essence, that is probably the answer to the first of the questions that the noble Lord, Lord Lester, posed. However, this amendment would not provide the platform that we believe we need to have. Given that explanation, I hope that the noble Baroness will withdraw the amendment.