Blow for Big Brother as watchdog condemns storing innocent people's DNA on database

The 'Big Brother' state suffered a double blow yesterday as watchdogs condemned the storing of trivial criminal convictions and DNA profiles of innocent citizens.

Police could be forced to wipe millions of entries from their national crime database following a landmark legal ruling by the privacy watchdog.

The Information Tribunal upheld claims by five individuals that it was unfair and disproportionate for their trivial offences or reprimands - some dating back almost 30 years - to be kept on the Police National Computer for the rest of their lives even though they never offended again.

One example the tribunal highlights dates back to Humberside in 1984 which involved a child stealing a 99p packet of meat from a shop and being fined £15.

In a second blow for ministers yesterday, a Government-appointed ethics watchdog warned that Britain's massive DNA database could breach human rights and privacy laws.
 
Both cases mark major setbacks for the Government's efforts to build state-run databases to track British citizens in the name of tackling crime and terrorism.

The Police National Computer holds more than 100million records of crimes, vehicles, individuals and convictions.

Thousands of searches are made every day both by the police and the Criminal Records Bureau.

The latest ruling from the Information Tribunal involves cases brought against five police forces by individuals complaining that data held about them concerned trivial incidents from many years ago.

They are Humberside, Northumbria, Staffordshire, Greater Manchester and West Midlands police.

Under current rules old offences can be 'stepped down' - and no longer be disclosed as part of CRB checks - but this does not happen automatically and all crimes stay on the PNC until the offender's 100th birthday.

The Information Tribunal ruled yesterday that in all five cases storing the data on the PNC was 'irrelevant and excessive', and breached the Data Protection Act.

The five forces now have 35 days to wipe the records, or else lodge an appeal. The ruling will have an impact on millions of cases.

Last week the Mail reported the case of Gemma Wilshaw, 24, whose dreams of becoming a nurse were wrecked by a long-spent theft conviction - for which she was given a conditional discharge as a 16-year-old.

She has now been thrown off her university training course.

Earlier this month it was revealed that medical student Majid Ahmed, 18, from Bradford, had his place at Imperial College in London withdrawn because of a spent burglary conviction.

The tribunal acknowledged the massive implications for the way the PNC is run.

But crucially it did not set out clear rules for what sort of records must be wiped from the database.

Meanwhile the first annual report of the National DNA Database Ethics Group threw up more problems for the Home Office.

The body was established last year to advise ministers on issues surrounding Britain's crime-fighting database - the largest in the world, holding more than 4.5million profiles.
 
In its report yesterday the group warned that the system's rules may be in breach of data protection and human rights laws, while defying 'the concept of proportionality.'

Anyone arrested in Britain is likely to have their DNA profile stored no matter how trivial the offence, or whether they are innocent or guilty.

More than 800,000 profiles are of people who were never charged, and it is virtually impossible to have one's profile removed.

LibDem spokesman Chris Huhne said: 'Innocent people should not have to apply to have their DNA removed from the database. They should not be on it in the first place.'