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Section 63D: Destruction of fingerprints and DNA profiles

Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 · 1984 c. 60View on legislation.gov.uk

Part V: Questioning and Treatment of Persons by Police

This section applies to—

fingerprints—
taken from a person under any power conferred by this Part of this Act, or
taken by the police, with the consent of the person from whom they were taken, in connection with the investigation of an offence by the police, and
a DNA profile derived from a DNA sample taken as mentioned in paragraph (a)(i) or (ii).

Fingerprints and DNA profiles to which this section applies ("section 63D material") must be destroyed if it appears to the responsible chief officer of police that—

the taking of the fingerprint or, in the case of a DNA profile, the taking of the sample from which the DNA profile was derived, was unlawful, or
the fingerprint was taken, or, in the case of a DNA profile, was derived from a sample taken, from a person in connection with that person's arrest and the arrest was unlawful or based on mistaken identity.

In any other case, section 63D material must be destroyed unless it is retained under any power conferred by sections 63E to 63O (including those sections as applied by section 63P).

Section 63D material which ceases to be retained under a power mentioned in subsection (3) may continue to be retained under any other such power which applies to it.

Nothing in this section prevents a speculative search, in relation to section 63D material, from being carried out within such time as may reasonably be required for the search if the responsible chief officer of police considers the search to be desirable.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.