Suspected data leak: ESR calls in police

Police are investigating a claim that a worker at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research made an "inappropriate disclosure" from the national DNA profile databank.

ESR said yesterday that a criminal investigation had started.

"A staff member has been suspended pending the outcome of the police and internal investigations," a spokeswoman said.

The alleged security breach was the first since the databank began operating in 1996.

ESR was confident there had been no impact on the integrity or outcome of past or current criminal cases, the spokeswoman said.

The incident came just as ESR sought $2 million to prepare for the Government's major push to boost DNA sampling of criminal suspects.

The Government is pushing legislation through Parliament that will eventually mean annual collection of 100,000 DNA samples - as many as there are in the entire national DNA database at present.

The new system will require DNA profiles that are collected when a person is charged to be held outside the database until he or she is convicted.

If the defendant is acquitted, the sample will be destroyed.

ESR's existing $21 million contract with police for forensic services will expire in June next year, a month before the first new DNA registrations are due to start.

ESR has the world's best hit rate on its forensic DNA database.

The spokeswoman said ESR had strict protocols and took "very seriously" its management of the national DNA databank, where profiles were kept on a separate dedicated secure system.

"External parties, including police, cannot access any information on it. Access by ESR staff is limited, both physically and by system security features, to those staff working within the forensic DNA facility."

An independent audit and review of all systems, policies and procedures related to the DNA bank has begun.

The databank has been heavily used as a crime-solving tool as it can not only link individuals to crimes, but show up links between apparently unrelated crimes. About 2 per cent of the population have their profile on the databank.

- NZPA