UK’s Largest DNA Database in the World

News that the UK has DNA samples on about seven percent of its population (4.2 million people) makes me wonder what kind of society I’m going to be joining when I move to London in about 10 days. DNA samples have been collected in a UK central criminal database that has been increasing by about half a million a year.

Due to a redefinition of laws, the UK now collects DNA from people who are acquitted or arrested, including 140,000 from people never charged with any offence. The DNA is analyzed for 10 microsatellites on the human genome and the information is kept indefinitely.

How does the UK’s database compare with other countries’?

• The UK database is 50 times the size of the French equivalent.
• In Austria, one percent of the population has DNA samples in a central database compared to seven percent in the UK.
• Germany and the U.S. have information on about 0.5 percent of the population’s DNA.

Andy Burnham, the Home Office minister, said:

The UK is a world leader in the use of DNA to detect crime. It has enabled the police to make greater use of ever-improving technology at crime scenes.

Our main objective now is to ensure that the National DNA Database is kept up to date and that newcomers to crime and those that have so far evaded police attention have their profiles added to it as soon as possible.

I’m sure the police have the population’s safety in mind overall. But it takes only a leak of data or a misplaced laptop for the information to fall into the wrong hands. Hope they have the DNA and any computer files in a secure location to maintain confidentiality.

Telegraph, January 5, 2006

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