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05/12/2008
DNA database violates human rights, European court rules |
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The European court of human rights has ruled that keeping innocent people's DNA on a register is unlawful.
Such actions breach article eight of the Human Rights Convention, it was claimed, which may force the police to destroy hundreds of thousands of DNA details.
The court said it was "struck by the blanket and indiscriminate nature of the power of retention".
"The powers of retention of the fingerprints, cellular samples and DNA profiles of persons suspected but not convicted of offences [...] failed to strike a fair balance between the competing public and private interests," it said.
England, Wales and Northern Ireland appear to be the only jurisdictions within the Council of Europe that allow the retention of sample material of any individual, of any age, who is suspected of any recordable offence, the judges wrote.
An estimated 4.5 million samples of DNA are held on the UK's database - 850,000 of which are reported to be taken from people with no criminal record.
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