Part 1: Main Provisions Section 24: Extension of time limits for retention of fingerprints and DNA profiles
The section confers a regulation-making power on the Secretary of State to ensure that the impact that COVID-19 is anticipated to have on the resources of the police does not lead to the loss of fingerprints and DNA profiles that would otherwise be retained for national security purposes.
	The section permits the Secretary of State to make regulations to extend the periods for which fingerprints and DNA profiles may be retained for the purposes of national security.
	Subsection (1) provides that the section applies to fingerprints and DNA profiles that are retained in accordance with a national security determination, under the provisions that are listed in subsection (1)(b), or that are retained before being destroyed in accordance with the provisions that are listed in subsection (1)(c).
	Subsection (2) confers a power on the Secretary of State allowing them to make regulations to extend, for up to six months, the period for which the fingerprints and DNA profiles may be retained.
	Subsection (3) provides that the Secretary of State may exercise the power under subsection (2) only if he or she considers:
that COVID-19 is having, or is likely to have, an adverse effect on the capacity of persons responsible for making national security determinations to consider whether to make, or renew, national security determinations, and
it is in the interests of national security to retain the fingerprints or DNA.
	Subsection (4) provides that the power under subsection (2) may be exercised on more than one occasion. However it also provides that the power cannot be exercised so as to extend the period for which any fingerprints or DNA profile may be retained by more than 12 months.
	Subsection (5) provides that the power under subsection (2) may be exercised only in relation to fingerprints and DNA profiles which (ignoring the possibility of an extension otherwise than by regulations under that subsection) would fall to be destroyed within the period of 12 months beginning with the day on which this Bill received Royal Assent (25th March 2020).
	Subsection (6) provides that before making regulations under this section, the Secretary of State must first consult the Commissioner for the Retention and Use of Biometric Material.
	Subsection (7) provides that if the Secretary of State has not exercised the power under subsection (2) within 3 months of the date on which the Act is passed, section 24 ceases to have effect.
	The territorial extent and application of the section is England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.