DNA retention - Sir Alec speaks out

An interesting piece on BBC Radio 4 today - 15th April. Martha Kearney interviewed Professor Sir Alec Jefferies on the ‘World at One’ about the Home Office response to the recent S and Marper judgement in the European Court of Human Rights.

Now that judgement was unequivocal - in a judgement delivered unanimously (17-0) the judges of the ECHR held that the retention of the applicants fingerprints, cellular samples and DNA profiles was in violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 8 deals with the right to privacy). The full judgement makes interesting reading and is recommended.

Now, Sir Alec Jefferies should know a thing or two. He developed the DNA fingerprint technique whilst working at the University of Leicester in the early 1980s. It is interesting that he is very concerned about the expansion of the UK DNA database and, in particular, its inclusion and retention of data relating to innocent persons (ie those not convicted of any crime). Today he condemned the Govt. for branding innocent people as criminals by not destroying their DNA profiles.

The Home Office recognise that the UK database is the largest of its kind in the world - to quote their own website: ‘The UK’s database is the largest of any country: 5.2% of the UK population is on the database compared with 0.5% in the USA. The database has expanded significantly over the last five years. By the end of 2005 over 3.4 million DNA profiles were held on the database – the profiles of the majority of the known active offender population.’.

The Home Office goes on to note that other police forces are keen to emulate the crime solving success of the database. OK, so the database can help to solve crime. But it contains the records of people unconnected with any crime and may serve to stigmatise those. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the database contains disproportionate records of certain groups within the population - it has been suggested that the database contains the DNA profiles of some 40% of the black youth population of the UK.

It was the retention of data relating to innocent persons and the disproprortionate nature of data in the database that attracted the dismay of the European judicial process. Today the Home Office told the BBC that it was their intention to bring forward an amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill to allow them to retain DNA and that the new regulations would be subject to full public consultation. An interesting response from the Home Office and somewhat at odds to the response to the ECHR judgement shown on their website, ‘The Government recognises the importance of the Judgment and will publish its response and timeline to the Court’s findings as soon as possible.’ Bringing forward regulations to allow the retention of DNA data hardly seems to recognise the important and significant comments made in the judgement, in fact, it flies in the face of the judgement and suggests that the Government intend to plough ahead and to ignore the advice of learned judges in Strasbourg.

The ECHR judgement indicated that retention was blanket and indiscriminate - and there are suggestions that there may be up to 800,000 records of people who have no criminal conviction. The BBC reported that the Govt. had suggested that it would be prepared to remove profiles from the database but would retain the original DNA samples - this matches up with the suggested changes to the Police and Crime Bill.

Removing the DNA profiles of innocent people is what the judgement indicates. Retaining the original DNA samples makes a mockery of the judgement - it is simply easy to re-profile the samples at a later date and to re-populate the database. Quite simply this is sticking two fingers up to the ECHR.

The Home Office and law enforcement agencies and officials must realise and must be made to realise that nothing short of complete removal and destruction of all records and samples relating to those not convicted or charged with any offence will do. The data relating to innocent persons must be removed from the database and there must not be work arounds or variations to allow DNA to be retained. Retaining DNA is an infringement of individual privacy and there must be no process to allow retention where there is no crime.

This is all about proportionality. The risk of crime and the demands of crime detection do not override the risks of damage to those concepts that we hold dear - the right of a democratic approach where a person is held to be innocent unless proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt and where individual privacy is respected.

This Government steps out against the ECHR at its own peril. The population can and are seeing the results.

[Note: The Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) and the PACE Code of Practice 'D' set out the manner of collection of fingerprints, DNA samples etc. It is important to note that fingerprints or DNA samples taken on a 'speculative' basis must be destroyed unless the subject has given permission for the data to be retained. Once permission is granted it cannot be revoked. It would be sensible to refuse permission for data to be retained.]