The number of children held on the English and Welsh DNA
database has grown by 20,000 in a year, while Scotland's database
continues to hold only a small number of under-18s.
A Scottish parliamentary answer showed that there are 1,167
under-18s on the Scottish database, compared to 320,841 in England
and Wales. The English and Welsh figure has risen since last year,
when
3
03,393 individual records for children were on it. Keeping
children's profiles is one of the most controversial aspects of the
DNA database.
The database has attracted plenty of criticism for keeping the
DNA profiles of innocent people, as well as high numbers of
under-18s. Critics say the database is an infringement of privacy
and unfair on people who have never been convicted of a crime, but
the UK government says the database has helped to solved crimes
that would have otherwise been unsolved.
The European Court recently ruled that the UK's system of
keeping the profiles of people not convicted of a crime was a
breach of human rights. The government responded by
limiting the amount of time people who are not convicted can be
held on it - six years for most, and 12 years for those arrested
for serious crimes.