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Bungling officials lost the fingerprint records or DNA profiles of 144 potential terror suspects.

Nineteen were from people who “may have posed a threat to national security”, a report by Biometrics Commissioner Prof Paul Wiles said.

They were lost from Counter Terrorism Command’s database in 2018, a year after 36 people died in attacks in London and Manchester.

MI5 rates the current threat level as severe.

(Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

But according to the latest annual report by Biometrics Commissioner Professor Paul Wiley, scores of profiles of potential suspects were lost.

A table in his report outlines “losses of biometric material of potential CT (counter-terrorism) interest for the year ending 31 December 2018”.

The 141-page study says: “Previous annual reports have recorded that a number of IT issues, procedural and handling errors have led to the loss of a significant number of new biometric records that could and should have been retained on the grounds of national security.

“During 2017 most of these issues appeared to have been resolved, with the new biometrics of 13 additional individuals lost; a substantial improvement on previous years.

“It is therefore disappointing to report that during 2018 the new biometrics of 144 additional individuals have been lost.”

A breakdown shows 73% of the losses were blamed on “an administrative error made during a manual data transfer to the software application used to manage NSDs (national security determinations)”.

Of the other losses, it says: “Eight cases were not reviewed by Chief Officers before the relevant biometrics reached their statutory deletion date, so the NSD could not be made.

“Eight cases were not progressed on time by the Counter-Terrorism Command.

“The remaining 24 losses were recorded as lost by MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) forensic services as the result of an oversight in notification after the Schedule 7 stop had taken place.

“I am informed by the Counter Terrorism Command that of the 144 losses of biometric material, it is estimated that in 125 cases the material would not have been considered for retention under an NSD.

“In the remaining 19 cases, where there were concerns that the individual to whom the lost biometric material belonged may have posed a threat to national security, necessary steps have been taken to assess the necessity and proportionality of reacquiring the lost biometric material.”

A “Schedule 7 stop” refers to a power under the Terrorism Act 2000 where “examining officers” at ports and airports are able to stop, question and/or detain people in to find out whether they are likely to be engaged in acts of terrorism, without the need for any reasonable suspicion.

The DNA and/or fingerprints of 11,850 people were held on the system at the end of last year, meaning the loss of 144 records equates to 1.2% of all those held.

Some 1,994 of individuals - about 17% - had never been convicted of an offence.

The total number of profiles on the register ballooned from just 6,500 when the role of Biometrics Commissioner was set up in 2013, under the Protection of Freedoms Act.

The Commissioner is independent of government and his job is to keep under review the retention and use by the police of DNA samples, DNA profiles and fingerprints.

The Met said it was “confident that such losses will not be repeated”.

It added: “Measures have been put in place to mitigate against the loss of the biometric records.”

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Sir Ed Davey said: “For the authorities to lose any biometric data is bad enough – for them to lose the data on 144 occasions is utterly unacceptable.

(Image: Getty Images)

“Some of that data may have become vital in national security work yet now the police will be flying blind.

“There’s no point in Ministers talking tough if even basic errors are being made on this alarming scale.”