The legal and constitutional affairs committee also recommended that there be a separate system for young offenders under age 18.

The 10-year-old database allows police to match hair, saliva and blood samples of known offenders with DNA found at crime scenes.

Under the Criminal Code, judges are authorized to order offenders to supply samples if they have been convicted of designated offences.

The committee — which lauds DNA as the gold standard in forensic evidence because no other tool is nearly as powerful for eliminating suspects or providing persuasive evidence of guilt — concludes the existing system is working well overall.

The report, however, said that it is "administratively cumbersome" to wait for court orders to obtain genetic material, noting that some witnesses who appeared at committee hearings said the wait sometimes lets offenders off the hook because they do not show up at police stations to give samples.