Government plans to keep DNA of innocent
- Author:
- Antony Savvas
- Posted:
- 12:34 27 Feb 2009
- Topics:
- Databases
The British government is reportedly planning to get around a European court ruling against its DNA database by retaining original samples taken.
The European court ruling condemned the retention of DNA profiles of more than 800,000 innocent people in the national database.
However, the Guardian has reported that the government still plans to keep the original samples taken from the innocent.
The paper said Home Office sources said the government had no plans to destroy these samples of DNA, meaning the police and other government agencies would still have routine access to them.
A Home Office spokesperson told the Guardian: "As made clear we will comply fully with the [European court] judgment, which is why we have brought forward at the earliest opportunity an amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill to allow us to introduce regulations on the retention of DNA and fingerprints. The contents of the regulations will be subject to a full public consultation in the Forensics white paper."
The paper also reports today that as many as 1.1m DNA samples from children are contained in the national database, with as many as half of them having no criminal convictions.
