The data is contained in the report of the DNA database's oversight board, which was sent to parliament and which highlights the lack of volunteers on these lists. One of the justifications is the fact that each volunteer has to pay to put their DNA profile in this database.

According to data available through the Ministry of Justice's online services, each volunteer must pay 408 euros, an amount to which 23% VAT is added. Only minors, incapacitated volunteers or relatives of missing persons are exempt from this payment.

Inserting DNA profiles into a database allows, for example, authorities to use this data to identify bodies, locate missing persons or for criminal investigation purposes.

In total, and according to the data provided by the report that analyzes the year 2024, the database has 25,673 DNA profiles, the majority of which are profiles of convicted people, with a record of 16,118 profiles.

Regarding the DNA profiles of convicts, there was “a significant increase” last year, the supervisory board considered, considering that 833 more profiles were introduced. This increase “will be explained by the growing number of sentences in which the collection of samples from convicted defendants is ordered”.

On the other hand, despite this increase in the number of new profiles, the representation of this category - which takes into account all profiles of convicts since 2010 - decreased, going from 66.8% of the total records to 62.78%. This decrease can be explained, says the supervisory board, by the elimination of 2,507 DNA profiles of convicts who were excluded from the list for “various reasons”. The difference compared to 2023 is considerable, as only six convicted profiles were eliminated that year.

Since 2019, this supervisory board, the report states, has been monitoring “the need to begin the elimination of DNA profiles and corresponding personal data”. “The procedure developed began to be applied in 2024, which explains the significant number of DNA profiles of convicts that were eliminated.”

In last year's figures, there is also a decrease in the total number of DNA profiles entered into the database. 4,633 profiles were inserted and in 2023, 5,457 profiles were inserted. This decrease of 824 profiles can be explained, the report indicates, by the fact that in 2023 many profiles that were on hold from previous years were entered into the database.

These records in the database are made by the laboratories of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Coimbra, Porto and Lisbon and by the Scientific Police Laboratory of the Judicial Police. In 2024, the Lisbon laboratory doubled the number of profiles inserted and the PJ laboratory did about half, “which is explained by the fact that in this year [2023], profiles that had been under its care for more than a year were inserted”.