DNA database proposals attacked

The Government has been accused of trying to sidestep a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights by continuing to keep the profiles of hundreds of thousands of innocent people on the DNA database for years.

Now civil liberties groups and opposition MPs have demanded that the Government revise its latest proposals or warn it could face further legal action.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: "This well-spun proposal proves that the Home Secretary has yet to learn about the presumption of innocence and value of personal privacy in Britain.

"Wholly innocent people – including children – will have their most intimate details stockpiled for years on a database that will remain massively out of step with the rest of the world. With regret we shall be forced to see her in court once more."

There are more than five million people’s DNA on the UK national database, of which around 850,000, including some children, have never been convicted of a crime. In December last year, the Strasbourg court ruled that keeping innocent people’s DNA on file breached article eight of the Human Rights Convention, which covers the right to respect for private and family life.

Under the new proposals DNA samples, such as mouth swabs, hair or blood, will be destroyed as soon as they are converted into a profile. However, it will be 12 years before the fingerprints and DNA of those arrested for, but not convicted, of crimes of a serious violent or sexual nature are automatically deleted.

The fingerprints and DNA of those arrested but not convicted of all other crimes will be retained for six years.

The Government also plans to retain indefinitely all DNA profiles and fingerprints of those convicted of a recordable offence, but said it will remove profiles of young people who have been arrested but not convicted, or convicted for less serious offences as a teenager, when they turn 18.

The law will also be changed retrospectively to add the DNA of all criminals who were convicted of serious violent crime and sex crimes before the DNA database was established, including those who are now back in the community. The police will also be allowed to take DNA from those who were convicted of serious violent crime and sex crimes abroad upon their return to the UK.

The Liberal Democrats said that the plans were designed to give as little as possible in response to the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights.

But Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "It is crucial that we do everything we can to protect the public by preventing crime and bringing offenders to justice. The DNA database plays a vital role in helping us do that and will help ensure that a great many criminals are behind bars where they belong."

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: "The Government just doesn't get this. People in Britain should be innocent until proven guilty. Ministers are just trying to get away with as little as they possibly can instead of taking real action to remove innocent people from the DNA database. It's just not good enough."

The proposals are open to public debate until 7 August.