Failure to properly record ethnicity on DNA database is ‘concerning’, says Biometrics Commissioner

The Commissioner, Dr Brian Plastow, has stated in a new report that a failure by Police Scotland to suitably record the ethnicity of those it retains DNA for is “concerning”.

Biometric data can include DNA, fingerprints, photographs, video, and voice recordings.

Publicly available information on the UK’s National DNA Database (NDNAD) allows observers to see if any ethnic group is over-represented when it comes to their DNA being taken and stored to help solve serious crimes.

But no details about a person’s ethnicity are recorded on the Scottish DNA Database (SDNAD).

Dr Plastow says properly recording such information, would support Police Scotland’s equality duties and help maintain public confidence and trust.

He said: “We have carried out a detailed review into the use and retention of DNA for criminal justice and police purposes in Scotland, and during our fieldwork, the SPA Forensic Services and Police Scotland were unable to provide us with any reliable management information on the ethnicity of anyone held within the Scottish DNA Database, as the database is nearly 30 years old and was not designed to record this information.

“The fact that SPA Forensic Services and Police Scotland are failing to properly record and publish data on the ethnicity of arrested people whose biometric data is then held is concerning, against the context of the former and current chief constables having stated publicly that issues of institutional racism persist within Police Scotland.

“Accordingly, we have been unable to establish whether there is any over-representation on the grounds of ethnicity or any other protected characteristic in Scotland.”

Official data shows that black people are significantly over-represented on the UK National DNA Database.

Black citizens account for 7.5 per cent of those on the NDNAD, yet according to the 2021/22 census make-up just four per cent of the UK population.

The 2022 Scottish census noted just 1.3 per cent of the Scottish population said they were of black heritage.

Dr Plastow said in the absence of ethnicity being recorded on the SDNAD, Police Scotland was asked instead to provide ethnicity data from its National Custody System, for arrests from 2023 to 2024 where DNA was taken.

Dr Plastow said: “Ethnicity is a mandatory field in the Police Scotland National Custody System.

“However, the data extract obtained by Police Scotland was incomplete and was also so heavily caveated to render it unreliable for our purposes.”

The recommendation for Police Scotland to review its ethnicity recording procedures was one of seven made after the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner conducted a joint assurance review with the SPA and the Leverhulme Institute of Forensic Science of the acquisition, retention, use and destruction of DNA for criminal justice and police purposes in Scotland.

His review report noted that while DNA helps solve only a small number of crimes in Scotland each year, these are likely to be the most serious types of crime.

Dr Plastow said: “DNA is not used routinely in police investigations. It is usually only a feature of crimes such as murders, serious assaults, housebreakings, and sexual offending.

“We know DNA provided a potential investigative lead in only 0.34 per cent of all recorded crime in Scotland in 2023 to 2024, but sometimes those investigative leads can be spectacular.

“It is not possible to determine how many crimes DNA helps solve in Scotland; however, it will most probably be fewer than 1,000 crimes each year.”

As part of his review Dr Plastow raised concern that more than ten years on from a £6 million investment by the Scottish government in new DNA profiling technology, the benefits had not been fully realised.

In 2014, shortly after the establishment of Police Scotland and the SPA, the Scottish government spent the money on the new DNA testing facility within the SPA Forensic Services laboratory at the Scottish Crime Campus at Gartcosh.

The investment gave Police Scotland access to the most advanced DNA interpretation and analysis facilities currently available in world policing, and of a higher standard than the rest of the UK and most of Europe.

But a decision not to re-test the samples of criminals recorded on its DNA database before 2014, means less than a third of its criminal justice profiles of convicted people are currently of the more advanced new DNA24 standard.

The report highlights that even where a criminal has been re-arrested over the past decade, including on multiple occasions, no fresh DNA sample is routinely taken if a lower standard DNA profile was already on the database from before 2014.

Dr Plastow said: “When the new DNA facility was opened at the Scottish Crime Campus there were more than 250,000 samples on the SDNAD at the time, and a decision was taken on the grounds of both cost and laboratory capacity not to do any bulk back record conversion, as it would have cost more than £10 million.

“This decision means that more than ten years after the introduction of DNA24 in Scotland, 69.9 per cent of the criminal justice profiles held in the SDNAD are still of a lower scientific standard.”

The Commissioner has recommended that Police Scotland reviews its DNA Confirmed policy to increase the number of DNA24 profiles on the SDNAD to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of police investigations.

He said: “DNA24 is a far more discriminatory technology than earlier DNA testing methods available to the police.

“Holding DNA24 profiles from more repeat offenders would lead to more effective and efficient investigations and would also eliminate innocent suspects more quickly.”

A further recommendation in the report called on Police Scotland to accelerate the development of a biometrics strategy, detailing what the organisation hopes to accomplish with biometric data and technologies in the next three-, five- or ten-year period.

Dr Plastow said: “Without such a plan, there is no clear vision of what Police Scotland hopes to achieve with DNA, fingerprints, facial images, or other biometric enabled technologies including retrospective facial search.

“Having a clear strategy and roadmap is an essential component of sound strategic governance and will help maintain public confidence and trust.

“It should set out a clear vision for each biometric data type, including any required capital expenditure.

“The plan should be approved by the Police Scotland executive and the SPA and be in place by no later than October 31, 2025.”