§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the DNA testing of(a)prisoners and(b)mentally disordered offenders conducted between February and September 2003 was on a (i) voluntary and (ii) compulsory basis; and if he will make a statement. [160204]
§ Paul GogginsThe DNA Prisoner Sampling Exercise between February and September 2003 aimed to take a DNA sample from all convicted offenders held in Prison or Mental Health Establishments, who did not have a DNA profile on the National DNA Database. Persons held in mental hospitals who had been found unfit to plead or acquitted of an offence on grounds of insanity were also included, if t heir DNA was not already held on the Database.
Sections 63(3B) and (9A) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (as amended) provide that a police officer may take a non-intimate body sample from a person who is convicted of a recordable offence on or after 10 April 1995. If the prisoner was convicted prior to 10 April 1995,there is no power to take a non-intimate sample unless he is a person to whom Section 1 of the Criminal Evidence (Amendment) Act 1997 applies. Section 63(3C) of the 1984 Act also provides that a non-intimate sample may be taken from persons who were detained on the order of the court, following their acquittal on the grounds of insanity or a finding of unfitness to plead.
Sections 63(3B) arid (3C) of the 1984 Act provide the power to take a DNA sample whether a prisoner or patient volunteers to give one or not. If a prisoner or patient refuses to give a sample voluntarily, then the police can take one using reasonable force if necessary. Of the 3,772 prisoners and patients sampled, 87 prisoners initially refused to be sampled. 77 of these prisoners subsequently agreed and only 10 had a head hair sample taken non-voluntarily. Patients were only sampled if their do or gave consent and the patient agreed to provide a DNA sample.