Taking non-intimate samples without consent
18.Article 8extends the circumstances in which the police may take without consent a non-intimate sample from a person in police detention to include taking such a sample from a person arrested for a recordable offence. The new power is available whether or not the sample is required for the investigation of an offence in which the person is suspected of being involved.
19.The existing requirement to give a person from whom a non intimate sample is taken without consent the reason for doing so and for recording the reason as soon as practical applies to the new power.
20.The amendments do not affect the existing powers to take samples from persons held in custody by the police on the authority of a court.