Genetics: Databases

Keith Vaz
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of irregularities on the national DNA database.

Meg Hillier
A number of procedures carried out by police forces, forensic suppliers and the National DNA Database (NDNAD) Custodian’s staff are in place to ensure that information is recorded as accurately as possible on the NDNAD. These procedures are designed to ensure as far as possible that errors are not included on the database in the first place, rather than removing them once they are on.

If any irregular record comes to the notice of the NDNAD Custodian and his staff, the record is suspended on the database pending an investigation—the outcome of which is that the record may be re-instated unchanged, amended, or deleted.

Mr. Graham Stuart
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people from each police authority area in Yorkshire and the Humber had a sample of their DNA stored on the national DNA database at the latest date for which figures are available; and if she will make a statement.

Meg Hillier
The number of subject profiles retained on the National DNA Database (NDNAD) for each police force in the Yorkshire and Humberside area are shown in the following table. There are two figures for each force; the number of profiles and the estimated number of individuals. The number of profiles held on the database is not the same as the number of individuals. As it is possible for a profile to be loaded onto the NDNAD on more than one occasion, some profiles held on the NDNAD are replicates. This can occur, for example, if the person provided different names, or different versions of their name, on separate arrests, or because profiles are upgraded.

It should also be noted that the table shows the number of individuals sampled by each police force, and not the area where the people sampled are resident. For example, the figure for North Yorkshire includes people living outside North Yorkshire who have been sampled by that police force and excludes residents of North Yorkshire who have been sampled by other police forces.

At present, the replication rate is 13.3 per cent. that is, the number of people whose details are loaded is 13.3 per cent. fewer than the number of profiles.

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|Police force   |Subject profiles|Estimated number of individuals|
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|North Yorkshire|55,879          |48,447                         |
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|South Yorkshire|117,023         |101,459                        |
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|West Yorkshire |214,362         |185,852                        |
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|Humberside     |81,986          |71,082                         |
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