1 Protection of Freedoms Bill: Committee stage House of Lords

1. GeneWatch UK is a not-for-profit organisation which aims to ensure that genetics is used in the public interest and that members of the public have a say about genetic science and technologies. 2. GeneWatch began investigating the issues associated with the expansion of the National DNA Database in 2003 and we published our first report about the database in January 2005. Since then, we have responded to every consultation on this issue, published articles, and supplied written and/or oral evidence to numerous committees, including to the Scottish Parliament’s Justice 2 Committee in 2006, and to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of S. and Marper. GeneWatch is regularly contacted by members of the public who are concerned about the indefinite retention of their or their children’s DNA and associated records and has published extensive information on its website to enable people to play an informed role in the debate. 3. GeneWatch has consistently argued that new legislation governing the DNA Database could be adopted which significantly improves protection for human rights, is compliant with the European Court of Human Rights ’ judgment on this issue, regains much of the loss of public trust in policing, and does not have an adverse impact on crime detection or prevention. 4. GeneWatch UK broadly welcomes the introduction of the Protection of Freedoms Bill, but we would like to see some further restrictions on the retention of data in some circumstances, and clarification of wording in some places. Our main concern is the lack of a provision to delete Police National Computer (PNC) records at the same time as DNA database records and fingerprints. 5. This evidence is informed by our own analysis of published evidence relating to the National DNA Database, and by issues raised directly with us by members of the public