Police Scotland facing calls to record ethnicity when collecting DNA or other biometric data following arrest

Police Scotland is facing calls to review procedures for recording ethnicity when collecting DNA or other biometric data following an arrest.

Dr Brian Plastow, the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner, has stated in a new report that a failure by the force 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 said a review was carried out into the use and retention of DNA for criminal justice and police purposes in Scotland.

He said while ethnicity is a “mandatory field” in the Police Scotland national custody system, data obtained from the force was incomplete and so heavily caveated that it was “rendered unreliable” for their research.

Dr Plastow also stated that properly recording such information would support Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority’s equality duties and help to maintain public confidence and trust.

He said: “During our fieldwork, the Scottish Police Authority 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% of those on the NDNAD, yet according to the 2021/22 census make-up just 4% of the UK population. The 2022 Scottish census noted just 1.3% 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 were asked instead to provide ethnicity data from its National Custody System, for arrests from 2023 to 2024 where DNA was taken.

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 Scottish Police Authority 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% 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 £6m 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 Scottish Police Authority (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 last 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 Scottish DNA Database 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 £10m.

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

The Commissioner has recommended that Police Scotland review its DNA Confirmed policy to increase the number of DNA24 profiles on the Scottish DNA Database 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 a new plan should be in place no later by October 31, 2025.

“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.”

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Johnson, Police Scotland, said: “We appreciate the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner’s thorough and detailed review and recommendations into our collection, use and retention of DNA data. We will consider the recommendations in full and with a view to both appropriateness and proportionality, working with SPA Forensic Services.

“Some of the recommendations are already being progressed, for example, a review of our retention periods and the benefit of upgrading lower standard DNA profiles.

“Ethnicity data is recorded on our Criminal History System, we will consider the proportionality of aligning this and our collection of biometric data.”

A Scottish Police Authority spokesperson said: “The Authority welcomes publication of the Biometric Commissioners report which provides important insight to inform the Authority’s oversight of policing and Forensic Services in Scotland. We look forward to considering the report and recommendations in detail and hearing from the Commissioner himself at a Forensic Services Committee in May.”