DNA upon Arrest 2008

I would like details of the number of people your force took DNA from upon arrest in the last calendar year (2008) who, subsequently, did not go on to be charged with an offence in relation to their arrest.

Where possible I would like this information broken down into the following categories: Gender; Age; arrestable offence.

In accordance with section 1(1) (b) of the Act our response is provided below;

We are unable to provide the information you have requested for the following reasons. In 2008 there were 20399 persons arrested by Cheshire Constabulary for recordable offences. It is highly likely that all of those arrested would have had their DNA taken. To ascertain how many of those arrested were not subsequently charged with an offence related to their arrest would require a manual examination of each individual custody record. This would clearly exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit is defined in the Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004, which is covered by statutory Instrument Number 3244 of 2004. Furthermore, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse to respond to a request for information where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit as defined by the above mentioned regulations.

We would add that the number of subjects arrested or detained and who had a DNA sample taken by Cheshire Police is not indicative of whether or not the individual is resident within the force.

Also, this does not necessarily relate to numbers of individuals subject profiles on the NDNAD which is higher than the number of individuals because some of the profiles held are replicates. In certain circumstances, a profile for a person will have been loaded on more than one occasion, for example where a person gave different names, or different versions of their name, on separate arrests.