News & Press
Select Committee takes on DNA database
12 March 2010
The Home Affairs Select Committee this week published a report which argues that a new centralised system is needed for removals from the DNA database. In the report - which outlines the findings of its recent inquiry into the government database - the Committee also says that while it does not question the indefinite retention of the DNA profiles of those convicted of crimes, the current system of indefinitely retaining the DNA profiles of people who are not actually convinced of any crime is "impossible to defend" . However, the report does not focus on the disproportionate numbers of those from the black community profiled on the database.
Commenting, Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP, Chair of the Committee, said: "DNA profiling and matching are vital tools in the fight against crime. However, Especially in the case of those of who are arrested and have their DNA taken but are then never charged, or never convicted of a crime, it is a very complex issue to balance the potential benefit of retaining their data against the threat to individual privacy"
