Databases and Evidence 09/08/2004
DNA identification is benefiting from new scanning technology that can automatically match DNA samples against a large database in minutes. Police forces in several countries including Canada, Germany, and the United States have created national DNA databases.

Top News

Privacy and the new UK government 13/05/2010
Privacy and the new UK government: the local and international implications, and open letter from PI's Director to our Trustees, Advisory Board supporters and partners.

News and Developments

UK National DNA Database retains innocent children's DNA 31/01/2006
A campaign to eliminate the DNA profiles of 24,000 innocent juveniles from the database has been instigated by a Conservative Member of Parliament after a lengthy battle to remove the record of a concerned constituent’s son who was arrested as a result of misidentification. The National DNA Database currently holds the records of 750,000 juveniles – some who have been convicted of offences but many who were simply charged, cautioned, questioned or were mere witnesses to incidents.

Mass Screenings of Volunteers helps to build UK DNA Database 31/01/2006
Despite public assertions by a Government Minister that records on the National DNA Database belonged to individuals who had at least been arrested, statistics released in Parliament in December 2005 revealed this is not the case. At that time, DNA profiles belonging to 15,116 volunteers, who were attempting to assist police investigations and exonerate themselves from being suspects in some criminal investigation, were retained on the DNA Database on the grounds that they had ‘consented’.

Scotland to expand DNA and Fingerprint Retention 31/01/2006
Despite previously rejecting the expansion of police powers governing retention of fingerprints and DNA profiles in 2001, the Scottish Executive is now pursuing this controversial policy. A consultation period on the expansion of powers terminated in September 2005 and Ministers are reported to be considering a response to the consultation.

G8 Meeting of Justice Ministers Begins - declaring laundry list 15/06/2005
From June 15 to 17 the ministers of justice and home affairs from the eight countries within the G8 will be meeting in Sheffield. Their list of policies that they wish to launder under claims of 'international obligations' is wide and dangerous, as ever.

G8 Agenda announced for UK Presidency 27/01/2005
The 2005 Objectives have been announced by the UK Presidency.

Key report damns UK National DNA Database Policy 13/01/2005
A report released today from GeneWatch UK finds fault and dangers in the UK Government policy on the collection of DNA profiles for combatting crime. The UK is increasingly copied worldwide, and this report offers an important set of warnings. The report is available on GeneWatch's website by clicking the above link.

Legal and Policy Developments

European Court Rules DNA Retention Illegal 04/12/2008
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously ruled that the UK law that allows the permanent retention of DNA profiles and samples violates Article 8 (protection of private life) of the European Convention on Human Rights as being disproportionate. It observed that the protection afforded by Article 8 of the Convention would be unacceptably weakened if the use of modern scientific techniques in the criminal-justice system were allowed at any cost and without carefully balancing the potential benefits of the extensive use of such techniques against important private-life interests. Privacy International intervened in the case.

Canadian Supreme Court upholds DNA databank 28/04/2006
The Supreme Court of Canada upheld the legality of the DNA database including the retroactive collection of profiles.

UK Government insists on right to DNA profile juveniles 17/02/2006
The Home Office have rebuked a challenge by a Conservative MP to their DNA retention policy for juveniles stating that the policy is justified and valuable to criminal investigations. The challenge was instigated after figures released in December 2005 revealed that over 24,000 youths, who were not guilty of any criminal offences, had their DNA profiles retained on the world's largest DNA Database.

UK DNA database to grow dramatically under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 31/01/2006
The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (hereafter 'CJA') further widens the circumstances in which a non-intimate sample may be taken from an individual. The Act merely requires that in order to take a non-intimate sample without consent, a person is arrested for a recordable offence - a significant advancement on the requirement that the individual was charged with a recordable offence and one that will encompass countless more individuals.

UK DNA Database includes the innocent and wrongly accused under the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 30/01/2006
The most significant amendment of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 is the amendment to the circumstances in which samples may be retained. The Act allows for retention of samples even where charges are dropped or the individual is cleared of the offence. It also allows for such samples to be used for (future) purposes related to the detection and prevention of crime, both in the UK and abroad.

UK retrospectively applies DNA profiling in the Criminal Evidence (Amendment) Act 1997 29/01/2006
The Criminal Evidence (Amendment) Act 1997 allowed for the retrospective application of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (CJPOA) by permitting the taking of samples from individuals convicted of certain sexual, violent and other offences pre-April 1995.

UK Expands DNA Database through the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 28/01/2006
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 was the first serious expansion of the powers to take samples, particularly non-intimate samples – which included mouth swabs and saliva in addition to hair samples: both of which provide DNA information. Such samples could be taken without the consent of the individual if he is charged with a recordable offence, a significant advance on the earlier requirement that the individual is charged with a 'serious arrestable offence'.

UK Early Beginnings of the DNA database 27/01/2006
Although DNA matching was first used to catch an offender in 1987, the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 is instrumental in defining police treatment of suspects in the early stages of an investigation. Despite the fact that the Act has been amended on numerous occasions since its inception, analysis of the original legislation provides the starting point to map out the development and expansion of the circumstances in which samples containing DNA can be taken from individuals.

National DNA Data Bank of Canada 2004-2005 Annual Report 23/08/2005
National DNA Data Bank of Canada 2004-2005Annual Report

Police are allowed to Keep DNA of Innocent, say UK Law Lords 23/07/2004
In two test cases, the Law Lords agreed with the Government, permitting police to keep the DNA of all people arrested but not subsequently charged. The decision will lead to a dramatic rise in the DNA database. The Decision is available on the Parliament website, and is entitled Regina v. Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police (Respondent) ex parte LS (by his mother and litigation friend JB) (FC) (Appellant) Regina v. Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police (Respondent) ex parte Marper (FC) (Appellant) (Consolidated Appeals) [2004] UKHL 39.

EU Article 29 Working Group Working Document on Genetic Data (external) 17/03/2004

PI Reports

PI Responds to the UK Home Office on attempts to 'modernise' policing powers 31/05/2007
The text of a submission from Privacy International to the UK Home Office's consultation on 'Modernising Police Powers', where they call for shops to set up temporary detaining facilities, the collection of DNA and fingerprints for littering by anyone over the age of ten, amongst others.