Currently the police in England and Wales can take a sample from anyone they arrest for a recordable offence.

Recordable offences include begging, being drunk and disorderly and taking part in an illegal demonstration.

Britain's national police DNA database contains samples from anyone arrested for a recordable offence since 1995.

Persons convicted of a recordable offence[0] 6.

If the person has previously been convicted of a recordable offence which is not an excluded offence, the material may be retained indefinitely.

Recordable Offences - Statutelaw.

A 'crime recordable offence' should not be confused with a 'crime reportable offence'.

Recordable offences include any offence punishable by imprisonment, plus a number of non-imprisonable offences, such as:

Currently the police can take these without consent if you have been arrested for, charged with, informed you will be reported for or convicted of a recordable offence.

Anyone who is arrested for any recordable offence has a record created on the Police National Computer (PNC).

By 2006, these guidelines had been abandoned in favour of retention of all PNC records, from everyone arrested for any recordable offence, to age 100.

The power for police to keep such records is contained in the National Police Records (Recordable Offences) Regulations 2000.

Where a person has been arrested for a recordable offence, police may fingerprint and take non-intimate DNA samples from suspects without authorisation from senior ranks.

A (crime) recordable offence is any offence under United Kingdom law where the police must keep records of convictions and offenders on the Police National Computer.

This states that a 'crime recordable offence' is an offence which MUST be recorded as a conviction on the PNC.

The government proposed to continue retaining indefinitely the DNA profiles of anyone convicted of any recordable offence, but to remove other profiles from the database after a number of years.

The provisions of the Protection Of Freedoms Bill as introduced in Parliament provide that all adults convicted of any recordable offence will have their DNA and fingerprints retained indefinitely.

But if, before the end of the period within which material may be retained by virtue of this section, the person is again convicted of a recordable offence, the material may be retained indefinitely.

For the purposes of subsection (3)(b), a conviction is exempt if it is in respect of a recordable offence, other than a qualifying offence, committed when the person is aged under 18."

If someone convicted of a recordable offence that is totally unrelated to the offence currently under investigation decides to volunteer a sample to assist in an investigation then it will automatically be retained indefinitely.

A full, lengthy, list of recordable offences is conveniently available, provided by ACPO as an Appendix to their Retention Guidelines for Nominal Records on the Police National Computer.

In England and Wales, anyone arrested on suspicion of a recordable offence must submit a DNA sample, the profile of which is then stored on the DNA database as a permanent record.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, since 2004, any individual arrested for any recordable offence has had a DNA sample taken and stored as a digital profile in the National DNA Database.

In the case of persons charged, but not convicted of a recordable offence, fingerprints and DNA profiles may be retained for three years, with a single two-year extension available on application by a chief officer of police to a District Judge (Magistrates' Courts).

Since April 2004, when this law came into force, anyone arrested in England and Wales on suspicion of involvement in any recordable offence (all except the most minor offences) has their DNA sample taken and stored in the database, whether or not they are subsequently charged or convicted.