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2 million samples on DNA database

01 May 2003

In June the number of profiles on the National DNA Database hit the two million mark, and it is expected to increase by another million in the next year. The figures were announced at a talk to the Police Foundation by Home Secretary, David Blunkett, who presented a vision of the Labour government "harnessing new technology to keep ahead of the criminal" through "a range of technological equipment [that] is being developed and used by police to increase security for individuals and communities." Among these "key" technological developments are the national fingerprint and DNA databases. New powers under the Criminal Justice Bill will allow police officers to take DNA samples and fingerprints from anybody who has been arrested (rather than charged, as at present, (see Statewatch vol 13 no 2). Blunkett has also mooted the possibility that the massively expanded DNA database could be privatised under plans to sell off laboratories providing forensic evidence in order to "inject competition" into the industry. The expansion, which comes at a time when authorities in the USA are expressing increasing concern at "irregularities" in processing the data, has been described as "dangerous" by the human rights organisation Liberty. The inventor of DNA fingerprinting, Professor Sir Alec Jeffries, has condemned the retention of genetic profiles of innocent people as "discriminatory".

Home Office press release "High-tech tools to fight crimes of tomorrow" 25.6.03; Times 15, 26, 7.03.