§ 45. Mr. JannerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make a statement concerning the use of DNA testing in disputed immigration and natonality cases.
§ Mr. Hurd[holding answer 21 July 1988]: I have 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—including right hon. and hon. Members—with known interests in the outcome. Further copies are available on request.
The Government are grateful for the assistance they have received from Professor Jeffreys of Leicester university, ICI Cellmark Diagnostics, 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 trial 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.
We 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.