National DNA Database Working Group
Page last updated: 20 January 2010
The HGC's report on the National DNA Database (NDNAD), Nothing to Hide Nothing to Fear? Balancing individual rights and the public interest in the governance and use of the National DNA Database, was published in November 2009.
The report was preceded by a public consultation on the forensic use of genetic information and forensic DNA databases in 2008. The consultation followed the release of the conclusions of a Citizens’ Inquiry on the same subject.
Following publication of Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Fear? the NDNAD working group was disbanded. Responsiblity for continuing to monitor issues relating to the NDNAD and for following up the recommendations contained in the report was passed to the HGC's Genetics and Identity Monitoring Group.
The National DNA Database
The impetus for this work came originally from the HGC’s belief that the expansion of the National DNA Database raises significant issues of public concern but that the database had not been subjected to sufficient debate, either in parliament or amongst the public. While most people accept that there needs to be a balance between protecting the public from the effects of crime and the infringement of privacy involved in taking and keeping genetic information about individual citizens, where that balance should be struck is often keenly disputed. And while there has been no overwhelming groundswell of opposition to the growth of the National DNA Database, the assumption that lack of opposition implies general public approval needs to be examined properly.
Samples for the National DNA Database come from three sources:
- samples found at crime scenes (e.g. blood, semen, skin – refinements of technology make it possible to use increasingly small samples comprising only a few cells)
- samples obtained compulsorily from people who are arrested by the police (the police currently have the power to require anyone arrested for a ‘recordable’ offence to provide a DNA sample)
- samples provided by volunteers – these are obtained from various sources: mass screening exercises (which may eliminate many people but may identify a suspect in a particular investigation); voluntary entry onto the database (often former sex offenders or those who live in areas of high crime to allow early elimination from police investigations); those connected with a crime scene but presumed to be innocent (in order to assist with the identification of contaminant DNA at crime scenes).
The police usually take samples from individuals using a mouth swab. The sample is then analysed in a laboratory and a numerical code (the ‘DNA profile’) is derived. This profile does not contain any usable information about an individual (about their appearance or medical status, for example) except whether they are male or female. It serves simply as a code by which an individual can be identified. (Both the sample and profile are routinely kept, although the terms under which this occurs differs within the different jurisdictions within the UK). The profile is used to match individuals recorded on the database to samples found at crime scenes. The sample can be used for quality assurance purposes but it is also possible to carry out further analysis to obtain or infer additional information (such as a person’s eye colour, their likely ethnic background or whether two samples come from people who are members of the same family). These further analyses are not routinely carried out in police investigations at present.
As a result of the accumulation of these samples and profiles, it is estimated that the NDNAD currently holds genetic information from over four million people, representing the highest proportion of any population on a forensic DNA database in the world (over 5%). It has been predicted that 25% of the male population and 7% of the female population will soon be represented, with the proportions of certain groups, already being much higher. (Some estimates say that more than three-quarters of young black men currently have their profiles on the database, as opposed to less than a quarter of white men of similar age).
However, according to the Home Office Forensic Science and Pathology Unit, the database provides police with, on average, around 3,000 matches a month and in 2005–06, 45,000 crimes were matched against records on the DNA Database. These included 422 homicides and 645 rapes.
The Citizens' Inquiry
The HGC’s working methods typically involve public engagement as a means of identifying and exploring social and ethical concerns associated with developments in genetics prior to making recommendations to ministers.
The Citizens’ Inquiry was commissioned by the HGC and its partners, the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum in Edinburgh and the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences (PEALS) Research Centre in Newcastle, with funding from the DIUS Sciencewise Programme and the Wellcome Trust. The Inquiry was deliberately participant-led, with the citizens themselves identifying the issues they wanted to explore and calling experts to give evidence. Their report is similarly their own, and provides, we believe, valuable insights into the perspectives, anxieties, and areas of knowledge and ignorance, that a diverse group of citizens bring to issues relating to the National DNA Database and the concepts and language through which they articulate and debate them. It also gives a strong indication of the directions in which the citizens feel that action needs to be taken.
Read more about the Citiaens' Inquiry here.
Wider consultation
Following the Citizens' Inquiry, the HGC held a wider consultation from July to November 2008, covering the following 10 key areas identified in the Citizens’ Inquiry as the sites of specific concerns:
- The information that people need when they have a DNA sample taken
- Which people’s profiles are added to make the National DNA Database bigger
- Reasons for keeping DNA profiles on the database for a long time
- Reasons for keeping biological samples as well as DNA profiles
- How to measure the benefits of having a national DNA database
- What difference having a national DNA database makes to people and society
- How the National DNA Database is managed and who can use it
- Other ways a national DNA database might be used (other than in the legal process)
- Sharing information from the National DNA Database with other countries, or linking with information from other databases
- Reasons for putting everyone in the country on a DNA database
Read the questions in full here.
Further information on this site
Inside Information (HGC, 2002): Chapter 9 deals with forensic uses of personal genetic information
Citizens' Inquiry - Introduction
Citizens' Inquiry - Citizens' Report
Citizens' Inquiry - Summary of conclusions
NDNAD Working Group - terms of reference
NDNAD Working Group - note of the first meeting
NDNAD Working Group - note of second meeting
NDNAD Working Group - note of third meeting
List of organisations contacted
Relevant external links
Genetic Information and Crime Investigation: Social, Ethical and Public Policy Aspects of the establishment, Expansion and Police Use of The National DNA Database (University of Durham, 2004)
The National DNA Database Strategy Board Annual Report 2005-2006 (Home Office, 2006)
The Forensic Use of Bioinformation: ethical issues (Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 2007)
A Surveillance Society? House of Commons Home Affairs Committee fifth report of session 2007-08 (The Stationary Office Ltd, 2008)
The National DNA Database Ethics Group first Annual Report (Home Office, 2008)
PACE Review (Home Office review of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which governs the taking of DNA samples in England and Wales)
Forensic Legislation Review (review of arrangements for the acquisition, use and destruction of fingerprint and DNA data in Scotland)