The new cabinet wants to allow the police and justice officials to access commercial DNA banks when investigating cold cases, current affairs show Nieuwsuur said on Monday.

The move is one sentence in the right-wing cabinet agreement and was first mooted in 2000. But senior lawyers say the move could be considered a major infringement of privacy rules and needs to be properly tested by judges.

Investigators have been accessing commercial DNA banks in the US since 2018 and reportedly have made breakthroughs in hundreds of cold cases. Sweden has also used them to solve a 2004 double murder.

Last year, police said they wanted to use private genealogy DNA data banks to solve two cold cases in Limburg, in what would be a Dutch legal first. The two data banks, both American, were chosen because users have to agree that their DNA be used in criminal investigations.

“This is a last resort,” public prosecution spokeswoman Mirjam Warnaar told Nieuwsuur.

The decision to approach the two data banks was also approved by judges. However, lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops told Nieuwsuur this is not sufficient. “The department asks for permission but there is no counter argument because there is no defence,” he said. “And formally, there is no suspect either.”

Bio-ethics expert Nina De Groot said the question revolves around the privacy of many innocent people. “This demands a democratic process,” she said. “And I think parliament, as law maker, has a major role in this.”

In the Netherlands people who are suspected of committing serious crimes are required to give a DNA sample which remains on file for use in other investigations.