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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The 'database state' is what we call the tendency to try to use computers to manage society by watching people. There are many interlocking government plans that do this. Together they mean officials poking into YOUR private life more than ever before.
All the databases could be linked to, or indexed by, the National Identity Register (NIR) that is the main aim of the 'ID cards' scheme. Your NIR number would be the key to your whole life. And by "information sharing", what you tell one public servant could be passed to anyone. The government name: "Transformational Government" sounds nicer - until you understand what is being transformed is not government but its power over you.
Currently the planned systems include:
The list is growing all the time, but NO2ID works with a wide range of other organisations. We are constantly looking for more people who want fight one or other of the the tentacles of the database state, as well as to cut off its head, the NIR.
If you can help, please get in touch by sending an e-mail to office@no2id.net - or, if you can't give us your time, please help fund the campaign. Every pound that you give will be spent fighting ID cards and the database state.
The NO2ID Campaign
Box 412
19-21 Crawford Street
London W1H 1PJ
enquiries@no2id.net
Tel: 07005 800 651
Press: click here
There's a lot of confusion about the government's proposed national identity scheme, and it doesn't help that the Home Office often gives misleading information.
