HL Deb 26 July 1988 vol 500 cc249-50WA
Lord Mowbray and Stourton

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will make a statement concerning the use of DNA testing in disputed immigration and nationality cases.

Earl Ferrers

My right honourable friend the Home Secretary has today placed in the Library the report of a pilot trial by the Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the use of DNA profiling in immigration casework Copies of the report are being sent to all parties with know interests in the outcome. Further copies are available on request.

The Government are grateful for the assistance which it has received from Professor Jeffreys of Leicester University, ICI Cellmark Diagnositics, Professor Dodd and Dr. Lincoln of the London Hospital Medical College, and its independent scientific adviser, professor Sir David Weatherall of Oxford University.

The main findings of the trial are that DNA profiling is viable and, with the use of the single locus probe, appears to be the most accurate method now available for determining parentage in immigration cases. The Government will therefore continue for the present to accept the validated results of commercial testing under the interim procedures issued by the Home Office last year. It follows that, where applicants can show through a validated DNA test result a qualifying relationship with both parents, and where the other requirements of immigration law are met, their claims will be accepted and the Home Office will not contest outstanding appeals.

The pilot was a scientific trail to test procedures and not a statistical investigation based on a properly constructed representative sample. It follows that from the limited data available no valid statistical inferences may be drawn about how far different decisions on admission would have been reached in the past if DNA testing had been available, or on the extent to which future applications are likely to be successful.

The Government are considering whether DNA testing should continue to be left to private initiative or organised under a centrally run scheme. The Government are clear that the cost of any such schemes should not fall on the taxpayer. We do not consider that a scheme should be either automatic for all settlement applicants or compulsory, though reasonable inferences could be drawn from refusal to take a test. We shall announce our final conclusions in due course.

Copies of the report may be obtained, free of charge, from Room 905, Home Office, Lunar House, Wellesley Road, Croydon CR9 2BY.