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13 August 2009
Issue: 7382 / Categories: Legal News , EU , Human rights
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DNA proposals disproportionate

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Storage proposals fail to meet Convention requirements

Government proposals  for the retention of the DNA of innocent people are disproportionate and are unlikely to satisfy the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention).

The Law Society, writing in response to a Home Office consultation, said that the proposed application of lengthy retention periods, “fails to strike the correct balance between the needs of the state to detect crime and the right to privacy of the individual”.

The consultation, Keeping the Right People on the DNA Database, was issued after a finding by the European Court of Human Rights that the blanket policy of the indefinite retention of fingerprints and DNA from those arrested but not convicted was in breach of Art 8. The court said that the retention of DNA profiles was “a disproportionate interference with the applicants’ right to respect for private life”.

The government proposals would result in the DNA record of those arrested but not convicted of a recordable offence being automatically deleted after six years. Those arrested for a serious violent

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