Compulsory DNA database ruled out

By John Joseph

LONDON (Reuters) - The government has ruled out introducing a compulsory DNA database on practical and ethical grounds, the Home Office said on Saturday.

Last week DNA evidence helped convict a man who murdered five women in eastern England and another who killed a model, Sally Anne Bowman.

The police detective superintendent who led the Bowman investigation said that had there been a national DNA register, her murderer could have been identified within 24 hours.

"There are no government plans to introduce a universal compulsory, or voluntary, national DNA database and to do so would raise significant practical and ethical issues," the Home Office said in a statement.

More than 6 percent of Britain's population, or 4.5 million people, are on its national DNA database, more than anywhere else in the world. Critics of a compulsory database oppose any extension on ethical and human rights grounds.

"I understand the debate around universalism," Policing Minister Tony McNulty told the BBC.

"I understand the debate from people who would rather the database disappeared in its entirety, but we think the balance and the fairness and proportionality is about right where it's now.

"How to maintain the security of a database with 4.5 million people on it is one thing -- doing it for 60 million people is another."