DNA Database Continues To Expand

The number of samples held on the DNA database will rise to 4.25 million within two years, the Home Office says.

There are three million samples held at the moment, with some of the expansion due to law changes in 2001 and 2004.

Suspects arrested over any imprisonable offence can have their DNA held even if they are acquitted.

The database includes 139,463 people never charged or cautioned with an offence, separate Home Office figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show.

The report does not provide any analysis of how many children's DNA samples are held on the NDNAD,

There are a couple of recent Parliamentary Answers on the subject, which reveal that 685,748 of the DNA records on the National DNA Database have been collected from children between the ages of 10 and 17 i.e. about 23 percent of the total, and are set to be retained for the rest of their lives (assuming that the table of figures given is not cumulative)

However, the controversial changes in the law which allow for the retention of DNA tissue samples, anaysed DNA "fingerprints" profiles and conventional fingerprints ... do not seem to have yielded very impressive results so far according to the report:

"15. Since the legal change that took place in 2001, it is estimated that approximately 198,000 profiles that would previously have been removed have been retained on the Database. Of these, at 31 March 2005, 7,591 profiles have been matched with crime scene samples involving 10,754 offences. These offences include 88 murders, 45 attempted murders, 116 rapes, 62 sexual offences, 91 aggravated burglaries and 94 of the supply of controlled drugs. "

Remember that for a person to be "linked with a crime scene" does not mean that all or in fact most of these crimes have in any sense been "solved".

"18. Some monitoring work has been undertaken by the DNA & Fingerprint Retention Project Team on the impact of arrestee sampling; this was based on data from 12 forces that are fully utilising the new powers. It has been identified that 43% of arrested persons are not proceeded against and ‘no further action’ is taken. Sampling arrestees who are not proceeded against has yielded over 250 profiles of individuals that have been linked with crime scene samples. These links to earlier offences may never have been made if the power under the 2003 Act to take a DNA sample on arrest had not been implemented. The earlier offences linked to these 250 criminal justice (CJ) arrestee profiles include: four murder/manslaughters, three rapes, six robberies, four sexual offences, five of the supply of controlled drugs and 98 burglary offences."

This does not appear to be overwhelming evidence that justifies the retention of thousands of innocent people's DNA samples.