DNA in the Dock

The UK’s National DNA Database was set up in 1995 and is the largest of any country in the world. Over 5% of the population have a sample of their DNA stored on the database, compared with 0.5% in the US. The government has made maintaining the database a top priority, and considers it a key crime-fighting tool. But it’s a controversial scheme.

In 2001 the government made it legal in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to keep a person’s DNA sample on the database for life – even if the person is later released without charge. It can only be removed at the request of the police under exceptional circumstances, such as an arrest being a case of mistaken identity. The law is different in Scotland, where DNA must be deleted from the database if a person is released without charge.

In January 2006 reports hit the media that almost 1 in 4 black males has his DNA stored on the database, compared with less than 1 in 10 white males.

So what do the government and other key organisations say about these issues?

The government says any intrusion of privacy caused by keeping DNA samples after a person is released without charge is counterbalanced by its crime-fighting benefits. It says that by changing the law at least 8000 DNA samples that previously would have been destroyed were instead linked to scenes of crimes including murders and rapes.

The civil rights group Liberty argues that the database should only contain samples from people convicted of sexual or violent crime.

Keith Jarrett, President of the National Black Police Association, was quoted as saying the figures on black males represented ‘disproportionality in yet another part of the system’.

In November 2006 the Nuffield Council on Bioethics launched a public consultation on the use of DNA in forensic investigations. The Council publishes its findings on 18 September this year.

But what do you think?

Come to the Dana Centre on 27 September to see the National DNA Database itself in the dock, facing two key ‘charges’. Is it an unacceptable infringement of civil liberties because it stores the DNA profiles of people who are arrested and detained but released without charge? Does it discriminate against ethnic minorities? Expert speakers will act as ‘defence’ and ‘prosecution’ and you, the audience, will act as the ‘jury’. Is the DNA database guilty or not guilty?

Event organised by:
The Science Museum

Speakers

Graham Cooke, barrister and member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics Working Group about the National DNA Database
Anna Fairclough, legal officer for Liberty
Dr Tim Clayton, barrister and forensics expert
Professor Steve Bain, member of the DNA Database Strategy Board and the Human Genetics Commission

Facilitator: Dr Carol McCartney, lecturer in criminal law, University of Leeds and Project Manager of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics Working Group about the National DNA Database