The pioneer of genetic fingerprinting, Professor Sir Alec Jeffries, has said that the Government is risking public support for the national DNA database by holding innocent people’s records.

Professor Jeffries told the Guardian,

“I have significant concerns there [about the size of the database]. That database is currently populated by an unknown number of entirely innocent people. It is not possible to get an accurate number but it appears to be hundreds of thousands.

“My view is very clear that if you have been convicted of a crime then you owe it to society to be retained on that database for catching in the future should you reoffend. But the retention of entirely innocent people is a whole different issue. There is a sort of presumption here that if they haven’t committed any crime now, then they will in the future.”

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary said,

“It demonstrates how out of touch the Government is with public opinion when the inventor of genetic fingerprinting has to tell them how unfair the DNA database is.

“It is unacceptable for the state to store the DNA of innocent people. The European Court agrees, Professor Jeffreys agrees and the public agrees. The Government must bring forward concrete proposals to remove the DNA of those that have done nothing wrong.

“Professor Jeffreys is also right to point out that the DNA database is not the flawless crime-fighting tool ministers would have us believe.”

Please help our campaign to protect innocent people’s DNA by encouraging friends and family to sign our petition at:  http://ourcampaign.org.uk/dna

Police have found a new way to plug those gaps in the DNA database by arresting people for being honest.

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. He had been out celebrating his 18^th birthday.

From the Crosby Herald :

Paul said, “It’s stupid. Being arrested isn’t a way to celebrate your 18^th birthday. What are you supposed to do when you find a phone? I told the last caller I would drop it off at the police station the next day. But they arrested me for theft by finding - shocking.”

Please help our campaign to protect innocent people’s DNA by encouraging friends and family to sign our petition at: http://ourcampaign.org.uk/dna

A Manchester man was arrested, held for two days, had his DNA taken and stored and was then released without charge.

His alleged offence? Taking photos of a sewer cover!

From boingboing.net (including video report):

“Though the police couldn’t find any photos of sewer-gratings on his phone (and even though “what a sewer grating looks like” isn’t a piece of specialized terrorist intelligence), he was held on suspicion of planning an act of terror, imprisoned for two days while the police searched his home, his phone and his computer.

“When they couldn’t find anything suspicious, they released him, but kept his DNA on file, as the biometric of someone who had been accused of plotting a terrorist act.”

Mr Clarke is now insisting that his DNA and fingerprints should be removed from police files.

Please help our campaign to protect innocent people’s DNA by encouraging friends and family to sign our petition at: http://ourcampaign.org.uk/dna

The DNA profiles of nearly 1.1 milllion children are being stored on the national DNA database – and will remain there until the children’s 100th birthday, whether or not criminal proceedings follow.

The figures were obtained by the Liberal Democrats in a Parliamentary question, and show that genetic information of 1.09 million children under 18 is being held, 337,000 of whom are under 16.

The campaign group Genewatch has calculated that around half of the children whose details are held on the database are innocent.

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, said:

“We already know that guilt and innocence are of no concern to ministers, but clearly neither is the negative effect the database has on children.

“It is unacceptable to keep the DNA of children on record in perpetuity for the most minor of offences. Unless convicted of a sexual or violent offence, under-16s should not have their DNA stored on the database.”

You can read the full story in the Guardian.

Please help our campaign to protect innocent people’s DNA by encouraging friends and family to sign our petition at: http://ourcampaign.org.uk/dna

In the week that The Liverpool Daily Post reported that Merseyside Police have placed the details of a seven year old on the National DNA Database, we learn that more than a million of those registered on the national DNA database were still children when their details were added.

The Telegraph has this story:

“Official figures show that, since the DNA database was created, 1.07 million profiles of children have been added. This is nearly a quarter of the 4.4million profiles on the database. Anyone who comes into contact with the police, as an offender or a witness, can have a DNA sample taken for the database.

“Ministers and the police say the database is a vital tool in solving crimes, and has helped detectives crack major cases including murder and rape.

“A breakdown of the figures shows that the profiles of more 100,000 children had their DNA taken when they were under 13, and the profiles of more than half a million children were added to the database when they were aged between 13 and 15.

“In the past three years, 48,500 children under-13 and 204,666 children aged between 13 and 15 were added. The figures are far higher than previously thought as Government figures only estimate the number of children currently on the database. Official figures show that the profiles of 344,339 children have been included.”

Helen Wallace, from campaign group GeneWatch UK said, “The massive expansion of the DNA database treats hundred of thousands of young people as suspects for life. Their DNA could be used to track them or their relatives or to reveal private genetic information.”

Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne said that the Government are “making the world’s biggest DNA database by stealth.”

You can help our campaign to protect innocent people’s DNA by encouraging friends and family to sign our petition at http://ourcampaign.org.uk/dna

The Daily Mail finally cottons on to the government’s plans to take DNA from people for non-recordable offences, like littering, speeding and driving the wrong way up a one-way street.

Here at Home Office Watch, we spotted this months ago (OK, so we forgot to mention DNA, focusing instead on the fingerprinting powers, but no-one’s perfect).

Fact is, whenever you noticed it, these are dramatic proposals. A DNA sample is already added to the database every minute; add in the minor motoring offenders, litter louts and fare evaders and we could have half the population on there.

Today we uncovered the worrying fact that over 100 children have been put on the DNA database before they even reached their tenth birthday.

DNA is stored until you hit 100 (whether or not you die) so those files will be stored for at least 90 years.

The rest of the data shows that, as of January, we had nearly 4.1m people’s DNA stored, so Britain retains its place at the top of the international league, with the largest database in the world.

I’m also fascinated to note that there are 46 DNA samples from people over the age of 90. Is a nonagenarian crime wave sweeping the country?

Today we learn the Forensic Science Service forgot to upload about 26,000 DNA samples onto the national database between 1994 and 2005.

I expect they dropped them down the back of the sofa, along with those 27,000 case files on offences committed by British citizens abroad. (Is this the Home Office version of “sofa government”…?)

This mistake left nearly 200 crimes undetected. Nice one.

Only this government could have a DNA database that tracks the innocent and leaves off the guilty.

Interestingly, the Home Office announced this gem themselves. A new outburst of frankness? Well, given ministers have apparently known since January, no. Just clearing the decks of bad news in time for the new guy is my guess.