Ms Maeve-Anne Kenny:

I will come in on this question. The offence provided for under head 6 is intended to cover the malicious destruction, falsification or concealment of evidence. Perhaps that is not crystal clear in the heads. We will make certain that it is dealt with in drafting, if that is an issue. The destruction of data that no longer serves a purpose or cannot be retained any longer due to the statutory codes that will be put in place is a different matter. I understand the length of time for which the data will be retained will be dictated by the data protection impact assessment. For example, if an incident is flagged for which no criminal charge is made, but subsequently a criminal charge is made, obviously one would need the provision to retain that data until such time as criminal proceedings are finalised. The time periods will vary depending on the type of data in question.