Groups angry over DNA database plan

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Campaigners are threatening legal action over proposed changes to the DNA database brought in after a critical European court judgment.

Under the current rules, anyone arrested for an offence has their genetic fingerprint stored for life - which police say helped them solve more than 17,000 crimes last year.

But human rights judges in Strasbourg ruled last year that the "blanket" policy was a breach of the right to privacy.

New Home Office proposals would see anyone arrested for a minor offence but later released having their profile stored for six years, unless they are rearrested.

Suspects held for sexual and violent offences who are not charged will stay on the database for 12 years. Under-18s who are arrested will have their profiles deleted when they become adults unless they commit multiple or serious crimes.

The profiles of all convicted criminals will remain on the database indefinitely.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, said the new proposals were disproportionate and could lead to abuses of the system.

"These proposals are not quite two fingers to the European Court of Human Rights but they come pretty close. They don't distinguish between people who are under suspicion, people who are wholly innocent and those who are guilty."

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: "The Government just doesn't get this. People in Britain should be innocent until proven guilty. Ministers are just trying to get away with as little as they possibly can instead of taking real action to remove innocent people from the DNA database. It's just not good enough."