Officers are targeting children as young as 10 with the aim of placing their DNA profiles on the national database to improve their chances of solving crimes, it is claimed.

The alleged practice is also described as part of a “long-term crime prevention strategy” to dissuade youths from committing offences in the future.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

The government has been warned it faces defeat in the House of Lords over its plans to hold almost a million people’s DNA profiles for up to 12 years.
…
Liberal Democrat peer Lady Miller said
“We will be joining with the other opposition party here to remedy what we see as many of the deficiencies in that part of the Bill that addresses that important issue,”

Conservative Lady Hanham said
“Retention of DNA samples from people who have never been charged let alone convicted of a crime is wrong.” “There is much in the government’s proposals, such as the retention of information for up to 12 years where there has been no prosecution, that is still quite unacceptable.”

Source:BBC

The DNA profiles of 800,000 innocent citizens stored on police databases are to be destroyed, the government will announce this week. The move follows a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in December that keeping the samples “could not be regarded as necessary in a democratic society”. Those on the England and Wales database despite having no criminal conviction include people who were arrested but never charged and others who have been acquitted in court.

Source: The Telegraph

Have you or your child been arrested and had your DNA and fingerprints taken by the police?

If so, you will probably have a computer record on Britain’s National DNA Database.

The Government is currently keeping innocent people’s records on the DNA database until they reach age 100. In Scotland it is against the law for the Government to do this.

At least 800,000 innocent people who have been arrested in England, Wales or Northern Ireland are thought to have their DNA and computer records retained.

If you are concerned about how the Government might misuse this information, or fail to keep it safe, you can use this website to help you get your computer records deleted and your DNA destroyed.

Source: Reclaim Your DNA

The inventor of genetic fingerprinting, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, today warns that the government is putting at risk public support for the DNA national database by holding the genetic details of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

Jeffreys, whose pioneering discoveries revolutionised police investigation techniques, condemned the government for leaving innocent people “branded as criminals” by its insistence on keeping the details of everyone arrested, regardless of whether they are later convicted.

Source: Guardian

A place to access your citizens’ information. Statebook

Paul Leicester, a teenager from Southport who found a mobile phone and handed it in to the police, was arrested and held at the police station for four hours. He also had his fingerprints, photograph and DNA sample taken.

Source: The Crosby Herald (via Home Office Watch)
Hat tip: @helenduffett

Of the 46 databases assessed in this report only six are given the green light. That is, only six are found to have a proper legal basis for any privacy intrusions and are proportionate and necessary in a democratic society. Nearly twice as many are almost certainly illegal under human rights or data protection law and should be scrapped or substantially redesigned, while the remaining 29 databases have significant problems and should be subject to an independent review.

….
A quarter of the public-sector databases reviewed are almost certainly illegal under human rights or data protection law; they should be scrapped or substantially redesigned. More than half have significant problems with privacy or effectiveness and could fall foul of a legal challenge.

Fewer than 15% of the public databases assessed in this report are effective, proportionate and necessary, with a proper legal basis for any privacy intrusions. Even so, some of them still have operational problems.

Britain is out of line with other developed countries, where records on sensitive matters like healthcare and social services are held locally. In Britain, data is increasingly centralised, and shared between health and social services, the police, schools, local government and the taxman.

The benefits claimed for data sharing are often illusory. Sharing can harm the vulnerable, not least by leading to discrimination and stigmatisation.

The UK public sector spends over £16 billion a year on IT. Over £100 billion in spending is planned for the next five years, and even the Government cannot provide an accurate figure for cost of its ‘Transformational Government’ programme. Yet only about 30% of government IT projects succeed.

Source: Database State written for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.