Commentary on Sections Retention and use of fingerprints and samples Sections 14 to 18 – Retention and use of fingerprints and samples
43.Sections 14 to18 (retention and use of fingerprints and samples) seek to ensure that fingerprints, DNA and footwear impressions (“samples”) can be effectively used for counter-terrorist purposes including by the security services by:
44.These sections amend the purposes for which samples obtained during criminal or terrorist investigations can be used. This includes adding that such samples can be used for the purposes of national security. National security is defined in section 1(2) of the Security Services Act 1989 and includes “threats from espionage, terrorism and sabotage, from the activities of agents of foreign powers and from actions intended to overthrow or undermine parliamentary democracy by political, industrial or violent means.”
45.Section 64(1A) of PACE currently allows samples to be retained and used for the prevention or detection of crime, the investigation of an offence, the conduct of a prosecution or for the identification of dead people (the same uses are provided for in PACE NI). In contrast, paragraph 14 of Schedule 8 to the 2000 Act provides that samples taken under the provisions of that Act can only be used for terrorist investigations or for the purposes related to the prevention or detection of crime, the investigation of an offence of the conduct of prosecution.
46.These sections will standardise the purposes for which the samples can be used between the 2000 Act, PACE and PACE Northern Ireland. When the uses for the samples are different they cannot be stored on inter-connected databases.