DNA

1. The total number of people that had their DNA taken by this Police Force in the last three years.

2. Of the total number of people above whose DNA was taken by the Police in the same time period, the number of those who were subsequently charged with an offence.

3. The number of a DNA profiles subsequently destroyed for those individuals in question 2 not charged with an offence in this time period.

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

From our preliminary assessment, we estimate that compliance with your request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is currently £450. The basis for this calculation is the cost of extracting the information to answer you question 2. There were over 19,000 DNA samples obtained during the period in question. To ascertain the information requested would require a manual examination of each individual custody record, match with the relevant crime file and/or PNC record. This is estimated to take a minimum of 10 months work for one person which is clearly in excess of the appropriate limit. Your request is therefore refused.

Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires the Cheshire Constabulary, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you with a notice which a) states that fact, b) specifies the exemption in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

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.

I am unable to offer you a realistic alternative for you to be able to obtain any useful statistics.