The government is expanding the UK's national DNA database with the
profiles of up to 13,000 criminals as part of an initiative
announced last week by Home Office minister John Denham.
The Home Office described the expansion of the database as a
"mopping up" exercise to include DNA profiles from prisoners and
offenders with mental disorders who are currently not on the
database.
Denham said, "DNA profiles of a minority of prisoners and mentally
disordered offenders are not on the database. We are addressing
this as part of our commitment to have the DNA profiles of the
known active criminal population on the database by April 2004."
The government has already committed to investing £182m in
expanding the database, which currently contains samples from about
1.8 million individuals. Each month the database matches 5,000 DNA
profiles taken from crime scenes with names on the system.
According to the Home Office, there is a more than 40% chance of
one of these crime scene samples being matched to an individual on
the database.
Updating criminal justice technology is a top priority for the
government, which last year allocated £1bn to overhaul IT in the
sector. In June last year a damning report from the Audit
Commission said inadequate IT was contributing to delays and
inefficiencies across the justice system.