To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people whose DNA is held on the national database that have committed no offence are (a) male and (b) female; and if she will make a statement. (162218)

On 31 October 2007, there were an estimated 4,188,033 individuals with a DNA profile retained on the National DNA Database (NDNAD). This includes approximately 22,700 persons who had provided a DNA profile voluntarily. Of the 4.18 million persons, 3,938,156 persons were sampled by police forces in England and Wales. These figures were obtained from the NDNAD.

Data on arrest and criminal histories are not held on the NDNAD, but are held on the Police National Computer (PNC). Such data are not available routinely at present, but the National Policing Improvement Agency which has responsibility for the delivery of NDNAD services is working towards being able to provide such data regularly from the NDNAD and PNC.

Data obtained from the PNC on 31 October indicate that 3,637,163 (of the 3,938,156) persons had a record retained on PNC. Of these, 3,117,942 persons had a conviction, caution, formal warning or reprimand¹ recorded on the PNC (79 per cent. of persons on the NDNAD sampled by forces in England and Wales); and 519,221 persons (13 per cent. of persons on the NDNAD sampled by forces in England and Wales) had no current conviction, caution, formal warning or reprimand recorded on PNC. The latter figure comprises some persons who may have had a caution or conviction record removed from PNC after five to 10 years in accordance with the Rules for Criminal Record Weeding (which applied prior to April 2006); persons who have been charged and acquitted or proceedings discontinued; persons who have been charged with a recordable offence and proceedings are ongoing; and persons who have been arrested but no further action was taken against them. The PNC records for the other 300,993 persons (8 per cent. of persons on the NDNAD) had been removed from the PNC for various reasons, for example, their conviction and caution records had been weeded after five-10 years, the person had been acquitted or proceedings were discontinued. No breakdown is available of the number of males and females who have a profile on the NDNAD but who have not been convicted, cautioned etc. These data could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

¹ Cautions, final warnings and reprimands are sanctions administered to a person who admits to having committed a criminal offence which could have led to prosecution.