Police forces in the UK could be forced to destroy the DNA details of hundreds of thousands of people who have no criminal convictions.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that when a person has not been convicted of an offence they are "entitled to the presumption of innocence" and that keeping DNA details breaches article eight of the Human Rights Convention. This rule covers the right to respect for private and family life.

It said the UK Government "had overstepped any acceptable margin of appreciation in this regard".

The ruling is likely to provoke a flurry of applications from citizens to have their information removed from the database. About half a million of the 4.5 million people on the UK's DNA database have not been convicted of crimes but had their DNA taken as part of an investigation.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she was “disappointed” by the decision and existing laws would remain in place while ministers considered the judgment.

The law currently allows the police to keep the DNA profiles of any person in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who has been arrested for a recordable offence. This is regardless of whether they are charged or convicted.

It is very difficult to get their records removed. The current legal decision follows a legal challenge by two British men who were arrested but not convicted of any crime.

They were unable to get South Yorkshire Police to destroy their data. The men’s appeal to the House of Lords was thrown out and it ruled that keeping the information did not breach human rights.

The court in Strasbourg, however, attacked the "blanket and indiscriminate nature" of the power to retain data.

Although the Government could now be ordered to destroy this data, Jacqui Smith said: "DNA and fingerprinting is vital to the fight against crime, providing the police with more than 3,500 matches a month.”

The two men were awarded £36,400 (€42,000).