MPs call to scrap DNA storage plan

MPs have called on ministers to scrap a proposed law allowing police to store the DNA profiles of innocent people. The Protection of Freedoms Bill currently making its way through Parliament could provide police with the option to keep DNA indefinitely for national security reasons, according to the Joint Committee on Human Rights. Peers and MPs on the committee said the Government had failed to justify why this power would be necessary or proportionate. Plans to curb the state’s right to intrude in private lives could result in up to one million innocent people having their DNA taken off the national database, according to Home Secretary Theresa May. The new law would see those convicted of an offence or cautioned have their DNA stored indefinitely. The profiles of those who are charged but later cleared will be kept for up to five years. But in a report on the proposed legislation, the committee said this posed “a significant risk of incompatibility with the right to a private life”. It warned that the plans may also create “a broad ‘catch-all’ discretion” for police to keep DNA indefinitely for reasons of national security.

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