More than 6% of the UK population is on the DNA database, the
highest proportion in the world. In England and Wales anyone
detained by police on suspicion of a wide variety of offences can
have DNA material added to the database even if they are never
charged or convicted of a crime.
Government advisors the Human Genetics Commission (HGC)
established a panel of 30 people to investigate the database. The
panel, called a 'citizens' inquiry', could call expert witnesses,
take evidence and direct their own six week period of research.
It concluded that the database should not hold the DNA of people
who have not been convicted of a crime, and that data on people who
were convicted should be held for a length of time propotionate to
their sentence.
The ECHR is yet to rule in a crucial case on the issue. A
British man who was never charged with a crime is objecting to the
police's retention of his DNA data.
Michael Marper has argued that his human rights are infringed by
the retention of his DNA sample. The House of Lords ruled in 2004,
though, that the parts of the Human Rights Act that apply to
privacy were not relevant to the police's retention of the
information.
The ECHR rules on questions relating to the European Convention
on Human Rights, whose principles became UK law through the Human
Rights Act. It heard Marper's case in February and a ruling is
expected later this year.
The citizens' inquiry recommended that the DNA database be
seperated from Government and the police and put on an independent
statutory footing to avoid its being abused. It also said that
anyone giving a sample should have the implications and reasons for
that explained to them clearly, and that the ethnicity of those
giving samples should not be recorded.
Black men are over-represented on the database, with 40% of
black men said to have their DNA data on the database.
One of the judges in the Marper trial has recommended that the
best way to redress this ethnic imbalance is to have everybody's
details added to the database. Lord Justice Sedley told the BBC
last year that putting everyone on the database would be
fairer.
A majority of the citizens' inquiry panel members rejected the
idea of putting every UK citizen's DNA details on the database on
the grounds of "cost, utility, difficulty, and data security among
other considerations", its report said.
The panel also recommended that the database in England and
Wales should be run more like the Scottish one. In Scotland police
can take samples of DNA but must delete those of people who are not
convicted, except in the case of some sexual offences.
