Leading article: An infringement of civil liberties

It is not difficult to see why Britain now has the largest DNA database in the Western world. Police officers used to require higher authorisation to test the DNA of someone who had been arrested. And they could only do so for the purpose of comparing their DNA to scientific evidence from a specific inquiry. But after a little-noticed change to the law three years ago, the police were permitted to take and retain DNA samples from anyone they brought in, so long as it was for a recordable offence. Now the police collect DNA samples as a matter of routine from everyone they arrest, which adds up to some 1.2 million people a year.

A case can be made for the police to retain the records of certain types of convicted criminals, such as sex attackers. The number of crimes solved through DNA technology has quadrupled over the past five years. But it is utterly unacceptable for the police to retain the DNA of those who are released without caution or charge, or found not guilty in court. It is true that the vast majority of the three million people on the database were charged. But this still leaves some 125,000 innocent people on the system. To retain these records of such people on a criminal database is a disgraceful infringement of their civil rights. It also represents a subtle change in the relationship between the state and the individual. No longer are we innocent until proven guilty, it seems: we are merely innocent until the DNA database links us to a crime.

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The revelation about the size of this database also prompts wider concerns about the sort of society we are becoming. The Government is pushing through its absurd ID card scheme, which will eventually entail biometric data from all of us - fingerprints and the colour of our eyes - being stored centrally. There is barely a corner of our cities that is not constantly monitored by CCTV. And now it seems that the Government is happy to see a DNA database grow by stealth. "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear," claim our political leaders. This could not be more misleading. What is to stop future governments abusing such databases?

There are already signs that under this Government, ethnic minorities are disproportionately targeted by the state. A quarter of those neither charged nor convicted but still retained on the DNA database are from ethnic minorities. And there is a danger of simple mistakes resulting in innocent people being linked with crimes to consider. Our leaders claim this is impossible, arguing that the technology is too sophisticated. But this Government hardly has an inspiring record when it comes to large computer projects.

We cannot afford to be relaxed about the ever-increasing amount of personal information being held on central databases. This information belongs to us, not the state. And it is time that we demanded it back.