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DNA Profiles to Be Deleted from U.K. DNA Database
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Friday, February 11, 2011
The UK’s National DNA Database will no longer retain the DNA profiles of most people who are arrested but not convicted of their crime. Currently, the DNA Database retains the profiles of anyone arrested, irrespective of the legal outcome. The changes will bring the law for someone arrested in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in line with Scotland.
Under the new measures set out in the coalition's Protection of Freedoms Bill, any adult convicted of a crime or child convicted of a serious crime, will still have their DNA profile stored indefinitely in the national database. But following a critical European Court of Human Rights ruling in December 2008, there will be wide-ranging changes to when profiles can otherwise be kept. According to the recent figures, there are almost 1.1 million profiles on the database of people without a linked conviction - about a fifth of all those in the system. In addition, the Protection of Freedoms Bill will also regulate the use of CCTV cameras by the police and local authorities for the first time to ensure they are used "proportionately and appropriately".
Read the article here.
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