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FACT SHEET
Forensic Procedures Amendment Bill 2014
The Bill makes a number of amendments to the Forensic Procedures Act
2000. Principally, the Bill inserts a new Part 4B into the Act Sampling
Procedures on Children under 10 years of age.
A sampling procedure by way of buccal swab or saliva sample will be
allowed with the permission of a parent (or on the order of a
magistrate) in the following situations:
To identify the young child, if a police officer is of the
opinion that the young child is lost or abandoned;
To identify a deceased person, if the young child is the only
person available to provide DNA for the purpose of
identifying the deceased person;
To identify or locate a missing person, if the young child is
the only person available to provide DNA for the purpose
of identifying or locating the missing person;
To establish the young child's parentage, if the young child is
not a victim of a crime to which the sampling procedure
relates but the young child's DNA may provide evidence of
the commission of that crime (for example to establish the
father of a child born to a person under the age of
consent); or
To differentiate the young child's forensic material from
other forensic material found at a particular crime scene.
These provisions should greatly assist Police in the course of their
investigations and law enforcement functions.
The Bill also makes a number of minor amendments to the Act to
assist the Act to better function, such as allowing the comparison of
DNA of missing or deceased persons.
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