What are the issues?
Your DNA profile, stored on the computer database, can be used to track you or your relatives. Your DNA sample, stored in a laboratory, also contains some personal information about your health.
Records on the National DNA Database are linked to another computer database called the Police National Computer (PNC). Since 2006, the police record of your arrest will also be kept for life on the PNC.
Issues include:
- The Big Brother state
- Your DNA is left wherever you go, for example on your coffee cup or beer glass. Will this or future governments misuse the National DNA Database and the Police National Computer to track political opponents or other vulnerable people? Will permanent records of arrest be used to refuse you a visa or a job?
- Is your genetic information safe?
- Your DNA is collected by the police, analysed in a laboratory and stored there by a commercial company. Your DNA profile is stored on a computer database and might also be shared with the police or security services in other countries. Anyone who can infiltrate the system could use your DNA profile to track you or your relatives. If they can access your stored DNA, they may be able to find out personal genetic information. Some of this information — such as whether you are really the father of your child, and whether or not you could pass a genetic health problem on to them — may be very personal, and perhaps unknown to you.
- Is the system fair?
- The current system treats some people as more innocent than others, even if they have not been convicted of any offence. It is biased towards keeping records on large numbers of young black men and vulnerable people, including children and the mentally ill. Nearly a million children and young people have been added to the database when they were under-18, and about 3 out of 4 young black men have had their DNA taken.
- Could you be wrongly accused of a crime you didn’t commit?
- DNA evidence is not foolproof. As the Database expands, the likelihood of errors is increasing. Sharing DNA matches within Europe will increase the danger of false matches. DNA evidence can also be planted at a crime scene.
- Is expanding the DNA Database a good use of police resources?
- Home Office figures suggest that expanding the Database to include DNA from more individuals has not helped to solve more crimes. Collecting DNA is often very useful during a criminal investigation, but storing DNA profiles from hundreds of thousands of innocent people does not seem to help. This is probably because most law abiding citizens are not very likely to commit serious crimes.