'One in ten' on DNA database
Government figures show one in ten Britons is on the national DNA database
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Monday, 15, Oct 2007 12:01
Almost one in ten Britons is on the national DNA database (NDNAD), it has emerged.
Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show that there are 4,850,510 profiles on the database, cementing its status as the world's largest.
Last year the Home Office predicted that the number of samples contained on the NDNAD would rise to 4.25 million, but not before 2008.
The figures, disclosed as a result of a parliamentary question from Lib Dem MP Jenny Willott, show that in 1997/98 129,781 profiles were added to the database.
But in 2006/2007, the database swelled with the addition of 722,464 new samples, an increase of 545 per cent.
Commenting, Ms Willott said that the retention of innocent people's DNA was "completely unjustified".
"A large proportion of the nearly five million samples now held on the database are from innocent people including tens of thousands of children," she said.
"At the current rate, in 2010 half of all black males will have their DNA stored on the database.
"There is already growing concern about racial profiling and discrimination in criminal investigations. This is a deeply disturbing path to follow that could ultimately lead to a search for some sort of 'criminal gene'."
But Home Office minister Meg Hiller said that the number of people who DNA is stored on the database is significantly lower than 4.8 million.
"A certain number of profiles held on the NDNAD are replicates; a profile for a person has been loaded on more than one occasion (one reason for this is that the person gave different names, or different versions of their name, on separate arrests)," she explained in a written answer.
"At present the replication rate is 13.7 per cent."
Any individual arrested over an imprisonable offence can have their DNA added to the national database, even if charges against them are eventually dropped.
Earlier this year a senior court judge saw his call for everyone in the UK to have their DNA added to the database fall on deaf ears.