The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has now issued its ruling, which (by unanimous vote of the 17 judges concerned) declares that the UK policy of retaining the DNA samples and profiles of innocent people breaches those individuals' rights.
In my previous post, I quoted the Home Office view that "Any intrusion on personal privacy is proportionate to the benefits that are gained". The ECHR ruling directly contradicts this, finding that the current policy is neither proportionate nor "necessary in a democratic society", and fails "to strike a fair balance between the competing public and private interests".
Another commenter on the ruling took issue with the Home Secretary's subsequent statement that "DNA [...] is vital to the fight against crime", pointing out that in Scotland, detection rates are higher than in England despite the Scottish policy requiring deletion of the DNA records of those not subsequently charged.
So far the Home Office response is intransigent: the current legislation will stay in place, they say, while they consider what steps to take next.
![[RSS Newsfeed]](/themes/sotto/images/valid-rss.png)
![[This is a Roller site]](/themes/sotto/images/roller-logo.gif){kind=logo}