22 February 2008
The government has ordered an inquiry after a year-long delay in checking DNA data from thousands of crimes committed abroad against UK records.
The data on 4,000 individuals were sent by authorities in the Netherlands to the Crown Prosecution Service in January 2007. But work to check the samples against the UK's DNA database began only last month.
In the Commons, Prime Minister Gordon Brown admitted that 11 crimes – including assault – had been carried out by people whose DNA profiles were on the disk. An inquiry ordered by attorney general Baroness Scotland would reveal what happened, he said.
Conservative leader David Cameron accused Brown of 'catastrophic errors of judgement'.
A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said Scotland would ensure 'that all necessary steps are taken to make sure that this does not happen again'.
The mishandling of the DNA disk follows the fiasco at Revenue & Customs, where two CDs carrying confidential data on 25 million people were lost last year. But a CPS spokeswoman denied there was a data security problem 'as this information was always in a secure building and did not leave the possession of the CPS'.
The CPS blunder also follows the Home Office's failure last year to ensure that details of more than 27,000 criminal cases involving Britons abroad were entered into UK police records.
Last May, the government ordered an independent 'Review of Criminality Information', led by Sir Ian Magee. This has yet to report, but Magee has outlined five main points, including the need for 'clear governance and accountabilities for improving information flows' and leadership, processes and guidance on data quality, security and sharing.
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