Is it the epic historical film from last year?
Do you see a triangular number and a pair of twin primes (149 and 151)?
Or do you recall how Jo Shaw, the Lib Dem PPC for Holburn and St Pancras revealed in the Telegraph last week that that’s how many children are added to the UK’s DNA database each and every day.
Almost 1.1 million youngsters aged between ten and 17 have had their profiles recorded by the police since 2000, with a large proportion aged under 15, the Daily Telegraph can disclose.
And around one in six are likely to have never been convicted of any crime.Ministers are currently reviewing the database but proposals would still see the profiles of innocent people kept for up to 12 years.
Youngsters who commit one minor crime will be kept on until they reach 18 while those guilty of sex or violent crimes will be kept indefinitely.
Jo Shaw, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary campaigner for Holborn & St Pancras who obtained the figures, said: “Labour’s approach to tackling crime is unfair, heavy-handed and ineffective.
“Storing the DNA of thousands of innocent young people as young as ten is unlikely to solve our crime problems, but is a costly way of stigmatising young people. If you’re innocent, you shouldn’t have your data on who you are kept for years.”
9 Comments
Jo Shaw PPC Holborn and Pancras has alarmingly drawn our attention to the existence of the `Surveillance State’ set up under this present Government, that tolerates the management of criminal data bases that have records of over one million British citizens, out of a total of five million records, that are allegedly people whom have committed illegal acts but have only committed minor acts, such as dog fouling,recycling or littering.
The Governmnet has failed to differentiate the serious criminals whom represent a continued threat to society like suspected terrorists, from those whom have committed one minor transgression, like littering or dog fouling
Dr Vince Cable and Chris Huhne M.P. have pointed out time out of number to this Government, that the UK is `sleep walking’ towards becoming a `Big Brother’ pariah State, that also inanely, allows 500,00 date records to remain misspelt including 100,000 children without any amendment.
Britain today has more than 5 Million DNA data base profiles held on computers,with many not properly securitised, as several have been lost .
This figure is totally unacceptable and runs hand in glove with the futile Government peradventure and socially `snooping ‘ ID card .
The UK has a larger number of DNA records held by the State, than in the US, with a population of 280 million .
“If you’re innocent, you shouldn’t have your data on who you are kept for years.”
Why not? We keep your data for tax and social security and health purposes. Why not to prevents serious crime?
“Storing the DNA of thousands of innocent young people as young as ten is unlikely to solve our crime problems,”
Who suggested it would solve them – but it may help in some very very serious cases and save lives. Why are you against this? Are the Lb Dems in favour of not detecting murderers, muggers and rapists?
After all – if you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t have anything to fear!
@Cynic: it’s largely a question of trust. Do you trust the police/government so completely, not only now but for the rest of your lifetime, that they will never misuse the information they hold about you? Would you feel happy for everyone to have their DNA recorded at birth or on entry to the country? If not, why should being arrested for a crime you haven’t committed make any difference?
“We keep your data for tax and social security and health purposes. Why not to prevents serious crime?”
I believe that tax data are only kept for up to six years in the ordinary course of things. The only social security records that are maintained over the long term are pension records, for obvious reasons and entirely to the benefit of the individual rather than the state; and (until the advent of the new rather scary NHS ‘spine’) access to information on your health is very restricted and again kept for your benefit not anyone else’s.
@Cllr Patrick Smith: I think I often agree with you, but please stop abusing the English language! Almost every time you write “whom” you should have written “who”. It’s no crime to be uncertain of when to use which, but please just stick to “who”, which is always correct in vernacular English. (Sorry, this isn’t meant as a personal attack, I just couldn’t take it any more…)
“If you’re innocent, you shouldn’t have your data on who you are kept for years.”
I agree with Jo. Unfortunately that isn’t what party policy is.
Excellent article by Jo. This is a really troubling development and DNA evidence is not as infallible as people think. This widespread harvesting of DNA is an abuse of power and is one of the civil liberties that has gradually been eroded by this govt.
@Cllr Patrick Smith.
I think you are wrong about sleepwalking – They are going like Usain Bolt !
I bet Usain Bolt sleepwalks faster than I run.