Tories: Scrap DNA data of innocents

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Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said holding indefinitely the profiles of people with no criminal record was both illegal and morally wrong.

He called on the Government to change the law so that only suspects in some sexual and violent crimes had their genetic fingerprints retained, and for up to five years.

Last year the European Court of Human Rights ruled holding all samples taken by police in the course of an investigation was illegal.

Responding to the ruling, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith ordered the profiles of all young children to be removed immediately and indicated that time limits would be introduced for those not convicted of any crime.

But in a letter, Mr Grayling accused Ms Smith of "dithering" in her response.

He said: "People know that I believe we should be tough on crime. DNA data plays an important part in many modern criminal investigations. So it should be taken and used where needed.

"But I also believe in the fundamental principles of our nation - and one of the most important of those is that people are innocent until proven guilty.

"So if the system judges someone innocent, or if they are only peripherally involved in a case, there is no excuse for storing their DNA indefinitely.

"This practice has now clearly been ruled illegal by the courts. It is morally wrong as well. Yet Ministers are dithering about what to do. It's very simple. They should stop breaking the law, and remove this data right now."