Part 2: Prevention, investigation and prosecution of crime Chapter 4: Other provisions Section 53: Power to specify date of attendance at police station for fingerprinting etc.
People who are arrested and taken to a custody suite can have fingerprints, DNA samples and a photograph taken straight away. If this is not done, there is a recall power to require those who have been arrested, charged or convicted to attend a police station so that their fingerprints and DNA sample can be taken (but not photographs – this is addressed by section 52 as described above). Currently, the person can be required to attend a police station at a particular time but not a particular day, only any day within a seven-day period. Police forces find this makes the power difficult to use, as they cannot deploy an officer or staff member to take the biometrics at a specific time. In practice, this results in opportunities to take fingerprints, DNA or photographs being missed. This means that opportunities may be missed to detect crimes the person may have committed in the past or may commit in the future.
	This section amends paragraph 16 of Schedule 2A of PACE to allow the police to specify the date and time (or times) of attendance.