In response to comments by Lord Justice Sedley, the Prime Minister says he has no plans to put everyone onto the National DNA Database. We believe him. It would be impossibly expensive.
In reality, however, various interested groups are lobbying to expand DNA sampling by the police. There is always pressure for a bigger database, more powers. The current Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) review is seriously considering taking DNA from people stopped for 'non-recordable' offences, such as littering or traffic violations.
Both the new Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Keith Vaz MP, and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics say that it is "unjustified" to keep on the database people who have not been convicted of any offence. But now records are removed only rarely, with the special approval of a Chief Constable. You have no rights over your sample. The Nuffield Council says the law in England and Wales should be brought more in line with Scotland, with DNA profiles used in evidence, but kept only for convicted criminals.
Lord Sedley is worried that the current system is unfair. But the real proposals for expanding the database would make that worse, with more disproportion and more scope for errors. And a recent ICM poll shows a majority of people do NOT support the taking of DNA for minor offences.
DNA does have a vital function in some criminal investigations. But the Home Office line is that samples from innnocent individuals should never, ever be discarded - just in case they might come in useful one day. As a police tool it is weakened by making it just another pretext for the database state.
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