JENNY CALLS FOR REMOVAL OF INNOCENTS FROM DNA DATABASE

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 11th Jun 2008

Today in Parliament, Jenny Willott MP laid a bill before Parliament calling for all innocent people to have their details removed from the DNA database. Currently, one million people who have not being convicted of any crime have their names on the database.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Jenny Willott, MP for Cardiff Central, said:

"There are over one million innocent people who have their DNA permanently on the DNA database - more than three times the population of Cardiff. What's more over 100,000 of them are children.

"As well as the loss of civil liberties, all the evidence shows that continuing to take, analyse and store innocent people's DNA has not improved crime detection rates. In fact the cost of doing so means fewer resources for frontline policing.

"Our Criminal Justice system was built on the principle of innocent until proven guilty. We need to bring that principle back by allowing innocent people to get their DNA removed from the database."