Two British men who were arrested but not convicted of crimes should have their DNA records removed from the national DNA database, according to the European Court of Human Rights.

The case is likely to provoke a flurry of applications for citizens to have their information removed from the database.

About 500,000 of the 4.5 million people on the UK's DNA database have not been convicted of crimes but had their DNA taken as part of an investigation.

Many have found it difficult to get their records removed from the database, as the law allows it to be kept even if they are not convicted.

But 17 senior judges from across Europe ruled that the retention of the DNA of Michael Marper and the other unidentified man "failed to strike a fair balance between the competing public and private interests", and that the UK government "had overstepped any acceptable margin of appreciation in this regard ".

In both cases the police refused to remove DNA information from the database.

The two men were awarded £36,400 (€42,000).

Tory shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve has demanded the government place the police DNA database on a statutory basis in compliance with human rights obligations.

"This vindicates all that we have been saying about the government's wrong-headed approach to this issue which has caused so much resentment amongst the law-abiding majority and done so much to undermine confidence in the criminal justice system,” he said.

"The home secretary must now come forward and say what steps she will take, given that the profiles of more than a million innocent people are currently on the UK's DNA database."