Innocents to be kept on DNA database for six years

The database holds six million profiles

The DNA of people arrested in England and Wales and then found innocent will no longer be held for more than six years, according to the BBC.

Currently the DNA of those arrested for a crime but not convicted can be held on the database indefinitely.

But the European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that this was illegal.

The Home Office then announced plans to keep the DNA of those cleared of crimes on the DNA database for a minimum of 12 years. This has now been reduced to six years after pressure from opposition parties and campaigners.

But the new proposals will allow police to keep DNA from those arrested for terrorism for an indefinite period, even if they are freed or found not guilty.

Almost a million of the six million profiles on the database are thought to belong to innocent people.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the package of proposed reforms will protect privacy - while still allowing police to use DNA to solve crime.

The current database has helped detect 300,000 crimes over a decade - 0.68 per cent of all crimes.

Between April and September 2009 the National DNA Database produced 112 matches to murders, 286 to rapes and 17,984 to other crimes.