The Act Schedule 5: Persons specified for the purposes of section 82 Part 3: Police powers etc. Section 118: Impressions of footwear
264.The Forensic Science Service (FSS) maintains two databases of footwear impressions. One database (the Mark Intelligence Index) contains impressions recovered from crime scenes. Footwear impressions are recovered from around 20-30% of all crime scenes. The other database (the National Footwear Reference Collection) contains impressions from different items of footwear not linked to any individual and is registered under the Data Protection Act 1998. Most manufacturers supply the FSS with photographs and footwear impressions from any new product for loading on to the database.
265.Subsection (2) of this section inserts a new section 61A into PACE. The section will allow the police to take an impression of a person’s footwear with or without consent. An impression may only be taken without consent where a person has been arrested for, charged with, or informed that he will be reported for a recordable offence and he has not previously had an impression of his footwear taken in the course of the investigation for the offence.
266.Subsections (3)and (4) make a number of consequential amendments to sections 63A and 64 of PACE to allow footwear impressions to be retained and searched against the National Footwear Reference Collection and speculatively searched against the Mark Intelligence Index.