The rapid expansion of the DNA database in Britain was halted yesterday by a damning ruling by European human rights judges that the retention of the profiles and fingerprints of more than 850,000 innocent people was unlawful.
The unanimous ruling by the European court of human rights scuppers Home Office plans to extend automatic retention of DNA samples to those arrested for low-level offences such as traffic violations and littering and for the Europe-wide sharing of records. The national DNA database contains profiles of 4.3 million people who have been arrested by the police in connection with "recordable" offences that carry a potential prison sentence.
Data protection experts also warned last night that it had wider implications for other criminal justice data-sharing schemes in Britain and across Europe.
The 17 judges ruled that the "blanket and indiscriminate" lifetime retention of DNA samples from unconvicted crime suspects, including children, constituted "a disproportionate interference with the applicants' right to respect for private life and could not be regarded as necessary in a democratic society".
The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, has until March to tell the Strasbourg court how she intends to comply with the ruling. Urgent talks were being organised last night with the police over how that might work. Chris Sims, the chief constable of Staffordshire and lead spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said that the judgment could have a profound impact on the way the police use DNA technology to tackle crime.
One likely solution is to adopt the system in Scotland where the DNA samples and fingerprints of people arrested only in connection with serious sexual and violent crimes can be retained on the database - and only for five years.