1 Protection of Freedoms Bill Third Reading: Parliamentary Briefing

The UK National DNA Database (NDNAD) contains by far the largest proportion of the population of any DNA database in the world, containing records from more than 5.7 million people.1 Because DNA is collected routinely on arrest for a very wide range of offences (any recordable offence) one person is added to the database roughly every minute. Even a false accusation of a very minor crime — such as a child claiming that another child pulled their hair — can lead to an arrest. More than a million people with records on the DNA database have no conviction or caution for any offence, yet under current rules their records are all retained to age 100. 2 In May 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that the current police rules for retention of records in the NDNAD, the fingerprint database (IDENT1) and the Police National Computer are unlawful.3 The Court allowed parliament a “reasonable time ” to adopt new provisions which ensure that the retention of data is proportionate to the need to tackle crime. People who will benefit from the provisions in the Bill There are many reported cases of individuals who will benefit from the provisions in the Bill, for example: a 12-year old-schoolboy arrested for allegedly stealing a pack of Pokemon cards4; a grandmother arrested for failing to return a football kicked into her garden5; a ten-year-old victim of bullying who had a false accusation made against her6; a 14-year-old girl arrested for allegedly pinging another girl's bra7; a 13-year-old who hit a police car with a snowball8; a computer technician wrongly accused of being a terrorist9; Janet Street-Porter10