Home Office will not back down on DNA database 3


Computing magazine reports:

The Home Office has refused to back down in the face of a concerted campaign from Labour MPs to retain the DNA profiles of suspects, who are not subsequently convicted, on the DNA database.

Junior Home Office minister James Brokenshire accused Labour MPs demanding continued retention of the records of being “very casual with people’s liberties”.

He added: “They seem to assume that simply because someone is arrested for a crime, they are guilty. We take a different view.”

He said it would remain possible for the police, in cases where an individual is arrested for a sexual offence such as rape, but not subsequently charged, to apply to a new biometrics commissioner for the retention of the DNA profile for three years.

Brokenshire insisted: “The government’s approach is based on putting on the national DNA database more people who are guilty of crimes, rather than those who are innocent. Simply increasing the size of the DNA database does not necessarily result in more detections.”


3 thoughts on “Home Office will not back down on DNA database

  • Tom Welsh

    It does seem to be true that many Labour politicians (and many Liberal Democrats, too) are much more comfortable dealing with people on a statistical basis, rather than as individuals. That is the only way such policies can be justified.

    Now who was it who said, “One death is a tragedy. A million deaths are a statistic”? Someone who used to be quite widely admired on the Left, as I recall.

  • Ian Russell

    The first statement implies that the Home Office is now all enthusiastic about not keeping DNA records of the innocent.
    However I think we should be very careful to draw a distinction between what the Minister has said and what the control freaks in the Home Office might want, but under the new Government know they will not get.
    I do not believe for a minute that the hyaenas in the Home Office have changed their stripes.

  • Ian Russell

    The first statement implies that the Home Office is now all enthusiastic about not keeping DNA records of the innocent.
    However I think we should be very careful to draw a distinction between what the Minister has said and what the control freaks in the Home Office might want, but under the new Government know they will not get.
    I do not believe for a minute that the hyaenas in the Home Office have changed their stripes.

Comments are closed.