FOI release

BSCC-FOI-0123-TH: lost DNA samples

Updated 10 January 2024

From:

Professor Fraser Sampson
Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF

Date 14 March 2023

To: request-949631-7d6de94a@whatdotheyknow.com

Reference: BSCC-FOI-0123-TH

Letter by email

Dear J. Roberts

Freedom of Information Request

I write in response to your email received by my Office on 14 February. In reference to my latest Annual Report, you have requested the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000:

1. Please provide a list of all forces who disclosed they lost DNA samples together with the number of samples that each lost.

2. Please provide all information held (correspondence, notes, emails etc) relating to your dealings with Surrey and Sussex police forces over lost DNA samples whilst gathering information for your report.

Please find attached to this letter all the information you have requested. Please note that, where redactions have been made in these documents, they are made under section 40(2) (personal information) or where the information is not related to the specific nature of your request. It is the policy of the Home Office to withhold the names of officials below the level of Senior Civil Service and, as an arms-length body of the Home Office, OBSCC also follows this policy. I can confirm that all the redactions relate to names and email addresses that would confirm the identity of the individual, or where additional open source research could provide the identity of the individual (for example, where a person’s position or role is disclosed).

Given the nature of your request, I wanted to inform you that on a monthly basis Police Forces report to the Forensic Information Databases Service (FINDS) any samples that they believe may have been lost. FINDS report samples as lost where they have a list of samples waiting for either the DNA profile to be loaded to the National DNA Database or an update to PNC to indicate the status of the sample e.g. destroyed. Some of these samples will have since been located and either submitted to a Forensic Service Provider for a profile to be obtained and loaded to the National DNA Database or destroyed if the sample is no longer required. Therefore, the figures in the table provided at annex A will most likely now be lower.

If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request by submitting a complaint within two months to the address below, quoting reference BSCC-FOI-0123-TH. If you ask for an internal review, it would be helpful if you could say why you are dissatisfied with the response.

Mark Greenhorn
14th Floor
Lunar House Building
40 Wellesley Road
Croydon CR9 2BY

e-mail: Sciencesupportfoi@homeoffice.gov.uk

As part of any internal review, our handling of your information request will be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. If you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you would have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.

Yours sincerely

Fraser Sampson

Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner

Email: scc@sccommissioner.gov.uk

Annex A - List of forces who confirmed lost DNA samples during the period January 2021- March 2022

Force name	Samples lost
Avon And Somerset	9
Bedfordshire	39
British Transport	61
Cambridgeshire	18
Cleveland	17
Cumbria	3
Derbyshire	37
Devon And Cornwall	5
Dorset	2
Dyfed-Powys	9
Essex	73
Greater Manchester Police	70
Gwent	16
Hampshire	4
Hertfordshire	45
Humberside	26
Kent	56
Lancashire	51
Leicestershire	45
Lincolnshire	22
Metropolitan Police	931
Norfolk	1
North Yorkshire	15
Northamptonshire	51
Nottinghamshire	67
South Wales Constabulary	20
South Yorkshire	58
Staffordshire	56
Suffolk	1
Thames valley	1
Warwickshire	22
West Mercia	7
West Midlands	318*
West Yorkshire	133
Wiltshire	3

*Lost DNA sample figures for the month of June 2021 were not provided at the time by this force. It may have been provided at a later date.

Annex B - Minutes note from Sussex Police Visit held on 26 July 2022

PoFA visit Sussex Police 26 July 2022

[Information redacted as not in scope]

Lost samples – to be discussed at Surrey session. Before 2019 can’t say samples taken may not have got lost. But shouldn’t happen in current model. Given 5 centres for DNA they can have more confidence.

[Information redacted as not in scope]

Annex C - Minutes note from Sussex and Surrey Police Visit held on 26 and 27 July 2022

Sussex & Surrey visit note – 26 and 27 July 2022

Sussex and jointly covered areas – 26 July [Information redacted as not in scope]

Lost samples

pre-2019, can’t be certain that didn’t have any, but now pretty confident that the processes in place have eliminated, or all but eliminated, losses. [To be covered further with Surrey tomorrow]

[Information redacted as not in scope]

Day 2 – Surrey – 27 July

[Information redacted as not in scope]

Lost samples

[Name redacted under s40(2)] has spoken to FINDS to try and determine exactly what it is that they require for these returns. Still not clear what it is they are defining as lost, and so how the forces need to collate that data. If they are sitting in the property store, then don’t know whether they are there or lost without physically going through the stores. Question about what other forces report as lost – not sure that the reporting is particularly accurate

Action: OBSCC to contact FINDS and see whether this can be unstuck

[Information redacted as not in scope]