Section 10: Taking non-intimate samples without consent
133.This Section extends 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.
134.Section 63 of PACE provides powers for taking a non-intimate sample without consent from a person in the following circumstances:
following charge with a recordable offence or notification that the person will be reported for such an offence;
if the person is in police detention (or is being held in custody by the police on the authority of a court), on the authority of an inspector which can only be given where the officer has reasonable grounds for believing the suspect is involved in a recordable offence and the sample will tend to confirm or disprove his involvement;
following conviction for a recordable offence.
135.In relation to a person in police detention, subsections (2) and (3) replace the existing provisions about the taking of a non-intimate sample on the authority of an inspector with a wider power to take a non-intimate sample from any person in police detention in consequence of his arrest for a recordable offence. This is conditional on him not having had a sample of the same type and from the same part of the body taken already in the course of the investigation or if one has that it proved insufficient for the analysis.
136.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. But of course the police will be able to use the new power to obtain samples in cases where under the present law an inspector’s authorisation would be given (for example, in a rape investigation, to obtain a foot impression, a hair sample and a mouth swab).
137.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 practicable applies to the new power. (see subsection (5) of Section 10).
138.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.
139.DNA profiles extracted from non-intimate samples taken from arrested persons will be added to the samples already held on the National DNA Database and checked for matches with DNA taken from crime scenes.
