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Ministers accused of trying to build DNA database by stealth
Last updated at 23:07pm on 05.09.07Ministers were last night accused of preparing a cloak-and-dagger operation to record the DNA of every British citizen after claiming there is a "real logic and cohesion" to the hugely controversial idea.
Tony McNulty, who is in charge of the database, said he was "broadly sympathetic" to a suggestion by senior judge Lord Justice Sedley of "putting everybody on it" to help catch criminals.
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A new profile is added to the national DNA database every 45 seconds
The Police Minister admitted there were massive civil liberties concerns, as well as practical difficulties, standing in the way of making it compulsory to give a DNA sample, with babies being swabbed at birth.
But the suspicion is growing that, once the DNA database reaches a "tipping point", with millions of innocent people logged on it, the Government will move to make it "universal".
Britain leads the way in the technology and already has the biggest DNA database in the world.
There are four million samples stored - more than five per cent of the population - and new profiles are being added at a rate of one
every 45 seconds.
This rate could increase next year when ministers are expected to confirm plans to allow anybody stopped by the police, including speeding motorists, litterbugs and people who do not wear a seatbelt, to have their DNA taken on the street.
Samples stay on the database even if a person - adult or child - is proved to be innocent or no further action is taken.
DNA: Will we all be on record?
Witnesses to crimes who volunteer their DNA to help police inquiries also face having their details stored for life.
There are an estimated one million people on the database, including 100,000 children, who have never been convicted.
Critics described yesterday's developments as "chilling", and another lurch towards a "Big Brother surveillance state".
They followed comments by Lord Justice Sir Stephen Sedley that the entire UK population and every visitor to the country should be on the national database.
The senior appeal judge, a former Communist, said the current position of having some - but not all - innocent people on the database was "indefensible".
The judge told BBC Radio 4: "It also means that a great many people who are walking the streets, and whose DNA would show them guilty of crimes, go free."
Mr McNulty said there would be obstacles to the plan, which would face a barrage of protest from civil liberties groups.
It would also require a huge recruitment of staff to take and input the samples of Britons alone, let alone the 100 million foreigners who visit each year.
But he declared: "I think we are broadly sympathetic to the thrust of what he has said.
"There is no Government plans to go to a compulsory database now or in the foreseeable future.
"There is a logic to what Sir Stephen is saying. I have said that there is a real logic and cohesion to the point that says 'Well, put everybody on'."
The Home Office claims the database has been a great success in catching criminals, with more than 40,000 crime scene matches last year.
Officials say people picked up for minor offences have been linked to crimes such as rape once their DNA had been taken.
But Opposition MPs accused Labour of secret plans to create a universal database.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "What is vital is that criminals are put on the DNA database but what the Government currently puts on the database is totally arbitrary.
"The erratic nature of this database means that some criminals have escaped having their DNA recorded whilst a third of those people on the database - over a million people - have never been convicted of a crime."
Liberal Democrat spokesman Nick Clegg said the Government had a "cloak and dagger strategy of creating a universal database behind the backs of the British people".
He added: "There is no earthly reason why someone who has committed no crime should be on the database in the first place, yet the Government is shoving the DNA details of thousands of innocent people on to the database every month.
"This mealy-mouthed approach to an issue of fundamental principle will only exacerbate public concerns about the onward march to a surveillance state."
Shami Chakrabati, director of the civil rights pressure group Liberty, said: "A database of those convicted of sexual and violent crime is a perfectly sensible crimefighting measure.
"A database of every man, woman and child in the country is a chilling proposal, ripe for indignity, error and abuse."
Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, said: "There are significant risks associated with creating a universal database.
"It would be highly intrusive, and the more information collected about us, the greater the risk of false matches and other mistakes.
"The potential for technical and human error leading to serious consequences cannot be under-estimated."
A spokesman for Gordon Brown said: "The Prime Minister is very supportive of the DNA database which has been very successful in tackling crime, but there are no plans to introduce a universal compulsory or voluntary national database."
THE LEFT WING JUDGE
Lord Justice Sedley
Sir Stephen is a strong supporter of human rights, and spent his 28 years at the Bar working principally in the fields of civil liberties and discrimination law.
In 2000, he was elected president of the British Institute of Human Rights. His Who's Who entries, under recreations, have included "changing the world".
He has said that judges should assert themselves to curb abuses of Government power and failures in the democratic process.
In the 1970s he was a tutor at the Communist University of London, a nine-day summer school organised by the Communist Party.
Its aims were to help students to develop a critical approach to the material taught in their regular university or college courses.
The father of three became a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1999, and has also sat as an ad hoc judge in the European Court of Human Rights.
THE FURY OF A FATHER
It took James Bristow, the manager of a large property firm, 13 months to have his daughter Caitlin's DNA details erased from the national database.
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Appeal: James Bristow and his daughter Caitlin
The father of four from Wilmslow, Cheshire, said: "My daughter is an articulate, privately- educated, straight-A student who was violently assaulted by a gang of yobs in the local park.
"When she went to the police station to report it, one of the gang claimed that Caitlin had assaulted him - I'm told this is standard yob defence - and so her DNA was taken.
"I was furious. I complained to the Independent Police Complaints Commission and it was only in July last year, 13 months after the original incident, that Cheshire police admitted they had made a mistake, and destroyed all her data.
"This hung over her head for a year - she used to be a county sprinter but now she's given it all up.
"As I understand it, I was only the second person to get a DNA profile removed, but I really do feel that this is another freedom that has been eroded.'
THE TREE CLIMBERS
Three 12-year-old children were arrested, DNA tested and locked up for playing in a tree.
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Frightened friends: Katy Smith (left), Sam Cannon and Amy Higgins
Katy Smith, Sam Cannon and Amy Higgins were hauled into a police station and kept in cells for two hours after they climbed into a 20ft cherry tree to build a tree house.
Their shoes were removed and mugshots, DNA samples and mouth swabs were taken.
Officers told the children they had been seen damaging the tree in a wooded area of public land near their homes.
The frightened children admitted they had broken some loose branches because they had wanted to build a tree house, but said they did not realise what they had done was wrong.
Officers considered charging the children with criminal damage but eventually decided a reprimand was sufficient.
Although the reprimand does not amount to a criminal record, their details will be kept on file for up to five years.
The parents of the children, who all live in Halesowen, West Midlands, accused officers of overreacting about the young friends, who have never been in trouble with the police before.
But Superintendent Stuart Johnson, of West Midlands Police, said he supported the officers' actions.
"West Midlands Police deals robustly with anti-social behaviour," he said. "By targeting what may seem to be relatively low-level crime we aim to prevent it developing into more serious matters."
• Jack Saywood was the victim of mistaken identity when teachers at his school gave police the wrong name after two pupils were involved in a brawl.
Although 14-year-old Jack was miles away in his father Peter's car at the time of the incident, he was arrested and had his fingerprints, photograph and DNA profile taken.
Jack's mother Frances, an office manager from Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, said: "We were at the police station for three hours before they admitted they had got the wrong boy and that Jack could go.
"But when I said I wanted the DNA sample destroyed, they told me it would remain on the national police database for ever."
Mrs Saywood went to her MP Grant Shapps, who was told that the police were "adhering to legislation passed by Parliament" and that they refused to wipe Jack's name from the DNA records or destroy his samples.
He then found out that chief constables have the discretion to decide on individual cases, and Jack's DNA records were destroyed.
Mrs Saywood added: "One day, will the DNA database be accessed by potential employers? If I hadn't acted, Jack's details would be on a criminal database for absolutely no reason."
THE INNOCENT PENSIONER
Jeffrey Orchard: 'Annoyed'
Pensioner Jeffrey Orchard had his DNA recorded after he was mistakenly arrested, but police refused to remove it from the database.
Mr Orchard, 72, had his fingerprints, photograph and DNA taken after he was asked to attend his local police station on suspicion of damaging a car.
Dyfed-Powys police then told him they had made a mistake - because they had caught the real culprit.
But they refused to remove his details.
Mr Orchard, a retired merchant seaman from Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, said: "This annoys me because I have not done anything wrong."
His Conservative MP, Stephen Crabb, has asked the force to use its discretionary power to remove Mr Orchard's profile from the database, but without success.
Mr Crabb, MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire, said: "DNA profiles can be a powerful tool in the fight against crime but a careful balance needs to be struck.
"I think many reasonable people would agree that a pensioner who was wrongly arrested over an incident should not have a lasting record on a national database."
Reader views (37)
Where is the future going with DNA?
Scientists can already grow body parts from a cell, will DNA be scrutinised to an extent that any person(s) particular trait can be removed/adapted within their DNA make up? - Where could that lead?
- Caine Parrott, Ashford, Kent
I am intimidated on a daily basis by criminals lurking on my very doorstep. I applaud and welcome any measure that helps identify, prosecute and therefore deter the terrifying elements in our society. Where can I sign up to donate my DNA?
- Terry Roll, London
Surely they cannot collect evidence if you did no wrong?! This is not right.
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London
Surely they cannot collect evidence if you did no wrong? This is not right.
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London
The personal data the Government already holds on us is of course so secure that no one could ever manipulate it - or so we are told. More chance of pigs flying. I would not trust our authorities to hold my DNA details, not because I have anything to hide nor because I imagine them to be of evil intent, but simply because experience suggests it would not be held securely and might for example be sold on to insurance companies or other interested parties. I prefer experience to triumph over hope.
- James Elliott, Eastbourne UK
What next, micro-chipping everyone at birth?
- Brandon Thomas, London UK
Why do I get a very bad feeling this government seems to think they know everything best and do not consult the elected Parliament often enough. I mean for sure I am not in favour of such a ridiculous idea as a DNA database.
- Steve O, London
This is one of the worst ideas ever. The fact that the system is being horribly abused does not mean that making it worse is a sensible thing to do.
The usual "nothing to hide nothing to fear" brigade need to think harder. Do they have curtains? Can they post their bank details here?
That it is seriously being suggested that everyone in the country surrender their most personal information JUST IN CASE THEY THEN GO ON TO COMMIT A CRIME is horrifying.
It may come as a surprise to those who sheepishly repeat "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" but it was suggested that the police all put their DNA on the database to simplify the process of ruling out contamination from crime scenes. They refused. I will do the same.
The bottom line: it will be a cold day in hell before I hand over my DNA to the state, let alone that of my children.
- Bill, Bristol
Every time you visit a hairdresser, you are giving him or her a good sample of your DNA. And if he or she is also a criminal and everyone is in the DNA database, isn't it obvious to leave some of your hairs behind at the crime scene?
Only people convicted of serious crimes should be in the DNA database.
- Nigel, London
Why do those who are pro ID cards and the DNA database always say that if you have got nothing to hide you needn't worry, or that they have got nothing to hide. This is a question of freedom and civil liberties and I see these things along with CCTV being put to sinister purposes one day to try and control people, how long before our voting behaviour is monitored? I am sure this will be the case if certain people have there way and try to enforce electronic voting. Before we had DNA testing and we only had fingerprints to rely on, why weren't people calling for everyone to be put on a fingerprint database? This would also have helped to solve crimes years ago.
- Paul Urban, London, UK
I guess since they cannot find the guilty ones they just put everyone on this file just too make sure. Whatever happened to the term freedom in this country?
- Strong, London
Mmmm, what are they doing? I think the ultimate proof should never be all on a government database.
- Armen, London, N1
Look at this - and previous - governments' record on large IT projects. Large scale failure every time with costs running into billions and security compromised.
On a purely practical level this will not work.
Those who say they have nothing to hide - off you go to the police station then to give your DNA to them. If you do not you are a liar.
- Stan, London, UK
To all you that say you have nothing to hide, wait till a mistake is made and you are accused of a crime you know you didn't commit only to be told "With DNA theres a 1 in a billion chance that it is wrong, so you're guilty".
Let's see you say you have nothing to hide then.
- Ben, London
Good idea.
Let's have all MPs, Police, Judges and public servants volunteer to be added to the database first.
- Steve Johnson, Reading, UK
The police state is encroaching on us. Freedom of speech is only tolerated as long as it is politically correct and is therefore a farce. DNA profiles are almost randomly collected and stored. Are we going to take this lying down (as we always have done) or are we going to stand up and resist while we can? That's the question!
- Otto Van Tuyl, Durham
The UK has gone off the deep end.
- Lisa, Cork, Ireland
Draconian measures like there are building a secret police monster that will be worse than the problems they serve to eliminate.
- Andrew, Midlands
The comment "Why not? Unless you've got something to hide." is the well known path to hell, and the road to tyranny.
Anyone who can't see this deserves to have their DNA taken from them.
- Neil, Hampshire
The problem here is not whether a DNA database should be created but if it were, what safeguards would be put in place. For example, the DVLA (Gov Organisation) hold information regarding our car registrations. They regularly sell this information to third parties such as clamping firms so that people can be pursued for non payment of fines.
What is to stop them selling DNA information to insurance companies who can use this information to determine our health in the future and therefore set premiums accordingly.
I'm sure that many of the people who agree with compulsory DNA samples would be horrified to find out they could not get life cover because their DNA revealed a fatal defect. Would employers take a risk on them for fear of being stuck with someone who may be on permanent sick leave? Would airlines allow people with hereditary heart disease to fly? Would other nations ban immigration of people who may cost their health service large amounts of money in the future. I'm all for DNA sampling of criminals as many reoffend and could be identified quickly, but don't sell your soul at the drop of a hat and marvel at the technology. As we all know technology, if it is abused, can be a backward step.
- Dan, Manchester
No way - surely this is only for people who are connected with a crime?!
It is no business from a democratic government to have all information on all people!
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London
I applaud the suggestion; the advantages are very obvious.
In what way could my DNA on a database possibly affect my civil liberties? Can anyone give me an example?
I regard the opposition to a universal database as a criminals' charter.
- Robert Beech, Macclesfield, England
Those who think they've nothing to hide may think twice about allowing their erosion of civil liberty if they consider the likelihood of the govt selling the database to private companies as they have insinuated they might do to fund it. Imagine insurance companies getting hold of data like this - watch your premiums go through the roof.
Not to mention the ability of fraud to hack into your DNA sample and use it as their own, or the possibility of errors on the database or by the police. How would you argue against this sort of 'concrete evidence'.
- Isabel, Woking, England
Sad country. Sad. My vote goes to the other political party.
- Stevo, London
So I assume that all the MPs, Judges and Her Maj will all be in line first. Just like the Freedom of information Act?
- G, London
The problem is the system could be abused by mischief-makers. It would not be too dificult to obtain a DNA sample surreptitiously and leave some in a compromising situation, would it? It is also said by some experts that fingerprints can be transferred from certain surfaces to others if one has the appropriate know-how and deviousness. If DNA samples and fingerprints are taken from innocent persons/suspects for elimination enquiries, they should be reurned to the giver for destruction, if charges are not brought. Forget about a National Database.
- Robert, Kirk Ella, East Yorks
Personally, I have nothing to hide and would have no objection to having my DNA on this database. This could solve and indeed prevent many horrific crimes.
- Fiona, Kingston-upon-Thames
So you will of course have your DNA and all your family already added to the database? No? I thought not!
- Gary Seymour, Redcar, UK
I propose that all the judges and our politicians are put on the DNA database first, then we could see and hear what they think about the idea?
I suspect the squealing of stuck pigs would be heard across the land, to be followed by demands that they should be exempt!
- Peter Hooper, Windsor, Berkshire.
Parliament deemed that gun possession warranted heavier sentencing, but the judges decided not to apply this to those under 21. We now see the consequences. Rather than trying to brand us all as criminals the judges should concentrate on punishing the most serious criminals that are brought before them.
- Mick, London, England
Britain (or rather England) is already a police state!
- Josh, London
How does someone who appears to lack the basic understanding of what it means to be British get to be a senior judge in England?
Have I dropped into some bizarre parallel universe where the lunatics are now running the asylum?
- Threaded, Roskilde, Denmark
Bolshevism did not work even in Russia.
- Georgie, London
And could the powers that be make such a system work? Of course not. But I'm sure they could spend billions on consultants in the meantime.
- Philip, London, England
Why not? Unless you've got something to hide.
- Paul, London
Britain will soon be a police state if this goes ahead. Bring back reason and reasonable people to positions of power.
- Guy Barry, Liphook, Hampshire
Perhaps we should all be put in jail the moment we leave the delivery suite. It would prevent a lot of crime, and free up a lot of police time so that they could attend all sorts of 'initiative training courses'.
Are these people on the same planet as the rest of us?
The judiciary and police just seem to think that the primary function of the populace is to provide them with things to spend their time on rather than serve us in their capacity of public servants.
Surely it's time for a revolution in this country to get rid of the self-serving interests that purport to rule us. Let's start with the judges.
- Brian, Telford
