Northern Ireland’s Department of Justice has opened a public consultation on how police should review the continued retention of DNA profiles and fingerprints under a proposed new framework.
The 12-week exercise, launched on 12 November, asks for views on a review mechanism intended to operate part-way through the maximum period for which some biometric material can be kept. Responses are due by 3 February 2027.
The consultation concerns the operation of a safeguard within a wider set of proposed changes. It does not itself bring a new retention system into force or mean that the rules have already been settled.
What the review would cover
Under the proposed framework, the Police Service of Northern Ireland would have to consider whether the continued retention of a person’s DNA profile and fingerprints remains necessary during a long-term retention period. The Department says the aim is to prevent material being kept for longer than necessary.
The wider Justice Bill contains a proposed move away from indefinite retention to a system with maximum periods. The Department has described long-term limits of 75, 50 and 25 years, with the applicable rules depending on factors including the nature of an offence, the person’s age, criminal history and whether there has been a conviction. The Bill also contains other retention provisions for different circumstances; the three long-term limits are not a complete account of every proposed rule.
A maximum period is not the same thing as a decision to keep every record for that entire time. The purpose of the planned review is to consider continued retention before the relevant maximum has elapsed. The consultation is about how that process should work, rather than a fresh announcement that those limits have already become law.
The Department says the framework is intended to support the prevention and detection of crime while addressing human rights judgments. Police use fingerprints and DNA profiles in investigations, but holding such material also raises questions about privacy and the circumstances in which an individual’s information should be kept.
Legislation and oversight
The Justice Bill has completed its consideration stage in the Northern Ireland Assembly but has not completed the legislative process. The Assembly’s published bill record lists further consideration and final stage as still to be scheduled, with Royal Assent to follow completion of the process.
The Bill provides for regulations to set out the review of long-term retained material. The Department’s consultation is seeking views on the proposals before the final arrangements are determined. The Department also envisages independent oversight by a Northern Ireland biometrics commissioner following appointment.
During earlier scrutiny, the Assembly’s Justice Committee asked about the independence of review decisions and the role of the commissioner. The Department told the committee that it anticipated a request for reconsideration would be handled by a more senior person who had not been involved in the original decision. It also envisaged that someone who remained dissatisfied could complain to the commissioner. Those were proposals described during scrutiny, not a guarantee that the final procedure will be identical.
Why the rules are being examined
The existing framework has been the subject of legal challenges. In S and Marper v United Kingdom in 2008, the European Court of Human Rights addressed the retention of biometric material from people who had not been convicted. In Gaughran v United Kingdom in 2020, it found a violation of the right to respect for private life in a case concerning the indefinite retention of a convicted person’s DNA, fingerprints and photograph.
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has also described an individual case in which a challenge to retention was settled after the person’s material was destroyed. The commission says police introduced interim measures, including a committee to determine applications for deletion. That existing route is distinct from the proposed statutory long-term review now being consulted on.
The length of proposed retention periods has itself prompted scrutiny. In evidence considered by the Assembly committee, organisations working with children and young people raised concerns about lengthy retention and its possible effect on their futures. Victim Support NI broadly supported the proposed long-term model but argued that children should be considered separately and their circumstances taken into account.
An earlier public consultation on the broader retention framework ran in 2020. This new exercise is narrower: it seeks views on the mechanism for reviewing long-term retention within the proposed framework. The Department is encouraging anyone with an interest in the taking or retention of biometric material to respond, including individuals and organisations involved in the criminal justice system.
The response deadline is the end of the consultation, not a date on which the proposed framework automatically begins. The legislation and the detailed arrangements remain subject to the processes required to put them in place.
