600,000 on police DNA database

London: Nearly 600,000 people have had their DNA taken by the police in London.

Official figures revealed yesterday that details of more than 3.3 million people are now held on the national database in England and Wales. The Metropolitan and City of London forces have put 594,955 samples on the database.

Intelligence tool

This equates to 8.25 per cent of the population compared with five per cent in the South-West, 6.5 in the West Midlands, 6.6 in the North-West, and 6.9 in the the North-East.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The National DNA database is a key intelligence tool which can help police protect the public through identifying offenders and securing more convictions."