British judge proposes DNA testing for tourists

IRISH people may have their DNA samples taken on arrival at British airports if the proposal of a senior British appeal judge is accepted.

The judge has sparked a heated row on the use of genetics to fight crime after suggesting that the DNA of the British population should be held on the national database.

He also proposed that DNA data from visitors to Britain should also be stored.

That would cover the 60 million people living in Britain plus all visitors, which takes the figure to 100 million a year.

With four million profiles the DNA database is the largest in the world and grows by 30,000 samples a month, taken from suspects or recovered from crime scenes.

The data of everyone arrested for a recordable offence — all but the most minor offences — remain on the system regardless of age, seriousness of alleged offences, and whether or not they were prosecuted.

It includes some 24,000 samples from people between 10 and 17 years old, who were arrested but never convicted.

Lord Justice Sedley, one of England’s most experienced appeals judges said: “We have a situation where if you happen to have been in the hands of the police, then your DNA is on permanent record. If you haven’t, it isn’t ... That’s broadly the picture.”

His comments prompted outrage from civil liberties groups who said the idea was a “chilling proposal”. And the prime minister’s spokesperson denied there were any plans to bring in a universal database.

Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said the government was “broadly sympathetic” to what the judge had said. But he also said: “There is no government plan to go to a compulsory database now or in the foreseeable future.”