Britain's DNA Database to Span Most of Population

by Jordan Yerman | April 11, 2007 at 07:35 am

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When I first moved to the UK (1994), I had to "register with the police", which involved fingerprinting and a brief bit of paperwork. What now, do long-term residents have to give a mouth swab? What about short-term visitors, are they next? This is what they call "the thin edge of the wedge".

Putting every citizen into the criminal justice system is dodgy enough as it is, but this development is even worse in light of the UK's recent trend towards ever more surveillance, ever more secrecy.

The Government's DNA retention policy combined with increasingly sophisticated statistical techniques means that eventually most citizens in the UK will be linked to data stored on the police's DNA database, according to a privacy law expert.

The outcome of an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that challenges the UK's DNA retention policy will not limit the ultimate reach of the DNA database, only the speed of its compilation, says Dr Chris Pounder of Pinsent Masons.

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Under last year's Police and Justice Act, the police are allowed to retain DNA data on those arrested even if those arrested are not convicted of or even charged with any crime. Data derived from these samples are then added to the National DNA Database.

Iceland already maintains a national DNA database, by the way.