Commissioner's response to Coronavirus Bill amendment
Published 23 March 2020
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Biometrics Commissioner Paul Wiles said:
The government have this morning amended the Coronavirus Bill by introducing a clause allowing the police to extend the statutory retention periods for biometrics (fingerprints and DNA profiles) that they are currently holding for national security purposes.
The clause allows the police to extend existing statutory biometric retention periods and existing NSDs for up to 6 months (with the possibility of extending this further to a maximum of 12 months) without carrying out a further review of the risk posed by the individual to national security. This will be done through the making of Regulations which the government can make only after consulting with me.
In the normal course of events, at the end of an existing retention period an extensive risk assessment would be carried out by the police and other agencies of the national security risk posed by an individual. Where appropriate, a National Security Determination (NSD) would then be made by a chief officer of police, setting out the reasons why it was deemed necessary and proportionate in all the circumstances to retain the person’s biometrics for a further period. I provide independent oversight of all these determinations.
The government have introduced this measure because, due to the unprecedented pressure on policing resources caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the police are unable to follow their normal processes. In the current circumstances the police simply would not have the resources necessary to make NSDs in the normal way, which will result in biometrics that are of importance to national security being lost.
Consequently, I consider it appropriate that the police be given the proposed 6-month extension to existing statutory retention periods, with a possibility of extending to 12 months should this be required. I therefore fully support the amendment to the Coronavirus Bill introduced today and consider it to be both necessary and proportionate in the current circumstances.
Once the situation returns to normal, I, or my successor as Biometrics Commissioner, will examine carefully the use and consequences of this extension period and produce a report for Parliament detailing my/their findings.