Colcam

When MP Grant Shapps took up the case of a constituent's son who had been wrongly arrested and had DNA taken, he asked questions in parliament and discovered there were some 24,000 youngsters on the database who had never been charged or even cautioned with anything.



It is indeed disturbing that the police can collect DNA from children who are innocent of any crime and keep it forever on a database, without even the consent of the child's parents. "This is just a question of building a database by stealth, by the back door," the MP told the BBC.

As for the British public as a whole, the Home Office announced earlier this month that 7% of the UK population would be on the database in two years' time. It is already the biggest in the world and has so far cost £300m.



Just over 5% of UK residents currently have their DNA profile held, compared with an EU average of 1.13% and 0.5% in the US.

Earlier this month GeneWatch UK called on the government to act to safeguard peoples privacy against Big Brother style intrusion from the national DNA database run by the police. GeneWatch argues the database creates a permanent list of "suspects" which includes anyone arrested for a recordable offence even if they are never charged.



The Home Office say there are no plans to introduce a universal DNA database.

I suppose they don't have to with the 'State Police' doing it for them.


Building A Better Lego DNA. I Wonder if PC Plod would know the difference?


See all recent posts.