UK Parliament / Open data

Crime and Security Bill

I shall give way to the right hon. and learned Gentleman in a few moments. The increase in the database is not leading to a corresponding increase in the number of crimes solved. In fact, there has been an enormous increase in the number of profiles held on the database from 2.1 million in 2002 to 5.6 million last year, but the number of detected crimes for which a DNA match was available—never mind whether or not it was pivotal in securing a conviction, which I suspect the right hon. and learned Gentleman is about to raise in his intervention—has fallen from 21,098 to 17,614 last year. Where is the proportionality called for by the European Court in this random accretion and increase in the DNA database coupled with a falling effectiveness and diminishing returns?
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
507 c51 
Session
2009-10
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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