The Government wants to keep DNA records of innocent people on police files until they are 100 years old, it has been revealed.
Damian Green, the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, received a letter from Nottinghamshire Police saying that “records will be retained on the Police National Computer until that person is deemed to have attained 100 years of age.”
The letter followed a protest from Damian on behalf of two of his constituents who had been attacked in a park and subsequently had their DNA and fingerprints taken by the police.
Damian said, “How many 100-year-olds are committing serious crimes? It would be laughable if it was not such a serious attack on the privacy of innocent people.”
And he warned, “The DNA database ought to be an important tool in fighting serious crime. Clogging it up with the records of the elderly and innocent makes it much less useful. It will alienate respectable people from the police, which will do long-term damage to the effectiveness of the police force."
Chris Grayling today set out plans to bring the practice of storing DNA files of innocent people to an immediate end.