HL Deb 30 November 1988 vol 502 cc399-400WA
The Earl of Selkirk

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What arrangements have been made for the results of blood tests, such as those involving DNA profiling, to be available for use in the Scottish courts.

The Lord Advocate (Lord Cameron of Lochbroom)

Questions have recently arisen in civil proceedings as to whether a court has power to order a person to submit to such tests or to draw an inference from a refusal to submit to tests. I have accordingly asked the Scottish Law Commission, as part of its work on the law of evidence, to consider questions arising from the provision of bodily samples in both civil and criminal cases and to report with its recommendations in the near future. I understand from my discussions with the honourable Lord Davidson, the chairman of the commission, that the commission intends to issue a discussion paper, with provisional proposals, on 8th December.