European Court is right about the DNA Database
I'm very sorry that the issue of the DNA database had to be taken to the European court. I would have preferred to see the British government recognise that the two innocent men who had their DNA and fingerprints taken by police, but were never convicted of anything, should not have had this information retained.
But although it is not often these days that Conservatives come out and praise the European Court of Human Rights, this time the court is absolutely right.
It is absurd that we are retaining the DNA of millions of innocent people, while there are also millions of convicted criminals who are not on the database because their convicion was before a particular date.
Dominic Grieve, Shadow Home Secretary, said our approach to a national DNA database has been vindicated by the ruling, which “vindicates all that we have been saying about the Government's wrong-headed approach to this issue which has caused so much resentment amongst the law abiding majority”.
He called on Jacqui Smith to “come forward and say what steps she will now take”, given that the profiles of more than a million innocent people are currently on the UK's DNA database.
And he laid out the Conservatives position that "We would have a Parliamentary debate about the database and put it on a statutory basis."
But although it is not often these days that Conservatives come out and praise the European Court of Human Rights, this time the court is absolutely right.
It is absurd that we are retaining the DNA of millions of innocent people, while there are also millions of convicted criminals who are not on the database because their convicion was before a particular date.
Dominic Grieve, Shadow Home Secretary, said our approach to a national DNA database has been vindicated by the ruling, which “vindicates all that we have been saying about the Government's wrong-headed approach to this issue which has caused so much resentment amongst the law abiding majority”.
He called on Jacqui Smith to “come forward and say what steps she will now take”, given that the profiles of more than a million innocent people are currently on the UK's DNA database.
And he laid out the Conservatives position that "We would have a Parliamentary debate about the database and put it on a statutory basis."
Comments