UK 'lags behind' on DNA forensics

8 February 2013 Last updated at 03:13 ET By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website

Cross-border co-operation on terrorism and crime will be compromised unless the UK updates the technology it uses for DNA profiling, experts have warned.

The country where the technique was developed now lags behind almost all European countries, which use newer processes to handle crime samples.

But plans to destroy millions of stored DNA samples could increase police workloads when the UK upgrades.

A select committee is hearing evidence on the state of UK forensic science.

The EU has recommended that member states adopt a standard set of 12 genetic markers - or loci - called the European Standard Set (ESS).

The large number of profiles held in different European databases that could potentially be compared necessitated standardisation, and an increase in the number of markers used to match them.

One purpose of the ESS was to reduce the potential for chance, or adventitious, matches between unrelated individuals. If investigators are comparing profiles generated using different sets of markers, there might not be enough of them in common to exclude such adventitious matches.

The timeline for implementation has now passed. Information obtained by the BBC shows that of 15 European countries for which data is available, the UK is one of four that has not upgraded to the recommended marker set.

Data collected in April 2012

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UK 'lags behind' on DNA forensics