Goggins challenged over retention of personal information of innocent children

8 January, 2007

Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney challenged NIO Minister Paul Goggins over
the retention of personal information of children innocent of any crime.

Mr McCartney said:

"Sinn Fein challenged Paul Goggins about the collection and retention of DNA and fingerprints by the PSNI from young people and children. This information must be destroyed. The NIO Minister today said that he would provide an exact breakdown of what has been done so far on this to the Committee at Sinn Féin's request.

"On police powers, most of these were proposed months ago by the NIO. Sinn Féin was the only party to formally respond and politically oppose these. Other parties fixate on the Policing Board's achievements. In reality, it has failed to hold the PSNI to account on political policing and collusion. They've given a free hand to the political detectives.

"Today it was also revealed that the Policing Board has approved a new
tranche of detectives to be recruited into the PSNI who will not be subject
to the Patten provisions of 50/50 recruitment. They've also dropped the ball
on designation of police support staff, with Paul Goggins confirming, under
questioning from Sinn Féin today, that positions as sensitive as Scene of
Crime Officers (SoCOs) will remain exempt from the powers of the Police
Ombudsman under the draft Order tabled." ENDS