{"id":3814,"date":"2008-06-11T11:13:15","date_gmt":"2008-06-11T10:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/surveillance-big-brother\/take-innocent-people%e2%80%99s-dna-off-database-says-welsh-mp\/3814\/"},"modified":"2008-06-11T11:13:15","modified_gmt":"2008-06-11T10:13:15","slug":"take-innocent-people%e2%80%99s-dna-off-database-says-welsh-mp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/surveillance-big-brother\/take-innocent-people%e2%80%99s-dna-off-database-says-welsh-mp\/","title":{"rendered":"Take innocent people\u2019s DNA off database, says Welsh MP"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1-8001.jpg\"IC Wales<\/a> | INNOCENT people would have their DNA taken off the Government\u2019s controversial database under plans put forward by a Welsh MP. Jenny Willott, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central, will present a private Bill in the Commons today to reform the way the huge DNA register is run.<\/p>\n

Almost one in 10 people in Wales have their data stored after a surge in the number of samples taken by police.<\/p>\n

Many of those 264,420 records belong to people who have never been charged with any offence, yet they can be retained for 100 years.<\/p>\n

More than 7,000 samples have been taken from Welsh under-16s.<\/p>\n

Ms Willott said: \u201cIf you are not charged or you are acquitted then your DNA should be removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn awful lot of people have only found out the hard way that this is not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the use of DNA technology has led to the clearing-up of several unsolved murders, including that of Cardiff prostitute Lynette White, killed in 1988, there are fears that the database is a breach of civil liberties.<\/p>\n

The database is the biggest of its kind in the world, dwarfing those used \u2014 in samples per head terms \u2014 by the US and other European countries.<\/p>\n

Ms Willott said: \u201cPeople who have voluntarily given samples, say to help in a police investigation, can\u2019t have their DNA taken off the register either, so potentially there are a lot of people affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK really is out on a limb on this.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a different league to other countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the public realise quite how far it\u2019s going because it\u2019s not very easy to find out, but I think that will change as more and more people are affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she was not against the use of DNA as a crime-fighting tool, saying for some offences like burglary, the presence of DNA at the crime scene more than doubled the prospect of a conviction.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean we have to hold everybody\u2019s DNA,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollect the DNA from the crime scene, but don\u2019t then hold it for 100 years. It\u2019s a question of getting the balance right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without any prospect of Government support, Ms Willott\u2019s Bill has no chance of becoming law, but she does have supporters from all sides of the Commons, including Labour MP Keith Vaz, who chairs the influential Home Affairs Select Committee.<\/p>\n

Also backing the Bill is Conservative MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire Stephen Crabb, who last year highlighted the case of constituent Jeffrey Orchard, a pensioner wrongly arrested for criminal damage.<\/p>\n

Mr Orchard, 73, had his fingerprints, photograph and DNA taken, but was cleared before the case reached court.<\/p>\n

The database does have its backers, however. Senior judge Lord Justice Sedley said last year that everyone should be included on it.<\/p>\n

The Government is funding an inquiry into public attitudes towards the database which is being carried out by the Human Genetics Commission, a body that advises ministers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IC Wales | INNOCENT people would have their DNA taken off the Government\u2019s controversial database under plans put forward by a Welsh MP. Jenny Willott, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central, will present a private Bill in the Commons today to reform the way the huge DNA register is run. Almost one in 10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1614,1615],"tags":[45,72,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-3814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-surveillance-big-brother","7":"category-uk-news","8":"tag-database-state","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3814\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}