Some 1.4 million new profiles have been added to the DNA database in the past two years – a rise of 38 per cent – according to figures released by the Home Office.

In February 2007 the database contained some 3.7 million profiles. Figures from the Home Office on Friday (27 March 2009) show that number had risen to 5.1 million by January of this year.

The Home Office estimates that both these figures are about 13 per cent above the actual number of people on the database because of duplicate profiles – a result of people giving different names, or different versions of their name, on separate arrests.

Home Office minister Alan Campbell said: "The presence of replicate profiles does not have an impact on the effectiveness and integrity of the database."

There are profiles of about four million men and more than one million women on the database; four million of the people on the database are white European, 400,000 are black and 280,000 are Asian.

In terms of age, 1.5 million people listed are between 25 and 34, 1.1 million are between 35 and 44, and 730,000 are between 21 and 24.