Law Society urges government to scrap plans to retain innocents' DNA profiles

7 August 2009

The Law Society is urging the Government to rethink its proposals to retain DNA profiles of individuals who have not been convicted of an offence.

The Law Society does not accept that the Government's proposals for the retention of this data from innocent adults and children, for lengthy the periods of time suggested, are proportionate.

The Society insists that the Home Office proposals of 6 and 12 years retention are very unlikely to satisfy the test of proportionality as articulated by the European Court of Human Rights. The proposed blanket application of these lengthy retention periods for personal information obtained as a result of merely being arrested, without subsequent charge or conviction, fails to strike the correct balance between the need of the state to detect crime, and the right to privacy of individual.

The Law Society is calling on the Government to rethink its proposals to change the law and has submitted a response to the Home Office consultation paper 'Keeping the Right People on the DNA Database'.

Ian Kelcey, Chair of the Law Society Criminal Law Committee said; "At the heart of the DNA retention debate is the need to balance the ability of law enforcement agencies to take full advantage of science and technology to detect and prosecute crime, particularly violent crimes against the person, with the right to privacy of innocent people who have not been convicted of a crime. In our view, the presumption of innocence is of such importance that those who have not been convicted of an offence should not suffer any penalty, nor be treated in any way that stigmatises them, unless there is a strong public policy reason which tips the balance in favour of doing so."

Read the Law Society consultation response:

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/influencinglaw/policyinresponse/view=article.law?DOCUMENTID=421853

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