I can confirm that all they are permitted to send abroad is the DNA profile, not the sample. The sample is separated and kept and stored, and can only be reused under very exceptional circumstances, where new technology is required to analyze those profiles under a new system.
So they're kept there really for two reasons. One is to ensure quality assurance of the sample they have. If they have a failure, they can go back and re-sample that. Two, if there's a change in technology and another band or something is required to be re-analyzed in the data bank, then they would have to use those for that purpose.
The DNA profiles that are sent abroad are right now, as I said, only for crime scenes. These would be anonymous profiles that relate to what we call junk DNA, non-identifying or non-discriminating for any known traits that we know of--except for the sex of the person, the X or Y chromosome, the only identifying feature in the DNA profiles sent abroad.
The rest of it, we have no idea what it codes for. It can't tell you any distinguishing features such as race, eye colour, hair. That's the international standard that has been adopted through a scientific working group. Almost all international DNA data banks use similar profiles, although we don't use the same. It's designed to ensure that the only information is identification. It's really a series of numbers that identify people differently but tell them nothing other than the fact that this person's DNA belongs to that person and not someone else.