ECHR rules against DNA storage where no conviction
5 Dec 08
Ruling has implications for national DNA database
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that two British men with no criminal convictions should not have had their fingerprints and DNA samples retained by the police.
In a decision issued yesterday, the court called the powers given to police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland “blanket and indiscriminate”. The case related to two Sheffield men whose samples were held by South Yorkshire Police, despite the fact that neither man was convicted of any offence. One had a charge of harassing his partner dropped when the couple were reconciled, and one aged 19 had been cleared of a charge of attempted robbery allegedly committed when he was 12.
The men had sought to have the police force destroy their records on the ground that the retaining the samples could not be regarded as "necessary in a democratic society", but failed in the domestic courts up to the House of Lords.
It is thought that the ruling will have major implications for the way DNA is stored in future and could mean that nearly 1,000,000 people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will have their records removed from the national DNA database.
At present, the DNA samples of everyone arrested in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are retained, regardless of whether or nor they are convicted of an offence. The police, backed by the current Westminster Government, regard the database as an important tool in solving older crimes, and the Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police Stephen House has called for the DNA of the entire population in Scotland to be similarly stored.
At present in Scotland only records of those convicted are kept.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she was disappointed with the ECHR ruling, as DNA and fingerprint samples helped solve thousands of crimes every month.
Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty said the court had used human rights principles and common sense to protect the privacy of the innocent, and Parliament must now debate the issue.