Innocent on DNA database for 12 years
Updated on 07 May 2009
New rules on holding DNA mean if you have been arrested you could still be a suspect for 12 years, as Jenny Wivell reports.
The Home Office says it is finding the balance between civil liberties and protecting the public.
So it will delete DNA samples of hundreds of thousands of people from the national police database but not for up to 12 years for anyone arrested in connection with a violent or sexual offence.
DNA of more than 850,000 people will be wiped from an official database, after a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.
But civil liberties campaigners are not happy that details of people who are arrested, but later cleared, will still be held for up to 12 years.
The database for England, Wales and Northern Ireland was held to be illegal.
But Home Office officials warned that removing people would reduce the number of crimes solved.
Jill Saward
With Samira Ahmed is Jill Saward, who campaigns on behalf of rape victims.
