But could it be abused by unscrupulous governments? Dr Helen Wallace of GeneWatch UK, the genetic rights group, fears it could be used to refuse people certain types of employment, restrict travel or even track down undesirable individuals. The Home Office claims it is a vital weapon in the fight against crime: one which, it hopes, will one day cover the entire population of those who are criminally active. Over the past five years, the database has expanded from 750,000 profiles to 2.9 million, thanks to a £182.6m investment programme. No other state has that kind of freedom to obtain, use and store genetic information. No other database has been granted such scope. Even if the schoolgirl had been released without charge or cleared in court, her sample would have been retained for the rest of her life, and probably beyond. It holds the genetic profiles of millions of convicted criminals, but also those of many innocent people. The UK National DNA Database is the world’s most extensive genetic record of criminal suspects. Unlike her ticking-off or public humiliation, this mark against her name will remain indefinitely on a mainframe somewhere in the Forensic Science Service. It was reported in the national and local press, but not one journalist chose to focus on the most disturbing aspect of the incident: she was DNA-swabbed and her details were added to the National DNA Database. Two months ago, a 13-year-old schoolgirl was arrested in Ashford, Kent for throwing a snowball at a police car.
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