DNA move helps criminals — Labour

London: Thousands of rapists and other dangerous criminals could get away scot-free thanks to plans to scale down the DNA database, the UK's opposition Labour party claimed on Saturday night.

Home Secretary Theresa May was accused of "covering up" damaging evidence that relaxing the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government's database rules would make it harder for police to track down thousands of offenders.

Labour claimed that a ‘secret' Home Office report revealed that 23,000 people a year who would later go on to commit crimes including murder and rape would have their DNA removed from police records under the reforms.

Under proposals to be debated yesterday, the DNA records of people arrested but not charged in England and Wales would be deleted after three years as part of the Coalition's Freedom Bill, rather than being kept indefinitely.

Labour opposes the plans, saying it would be safer to retain data for six years because many not charged go on to commit crimes.

On Saturday night, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper claimed that the Home Office's own research backed up Labour's policy. She said that the research confirmed that 23,000 people a year would go on to commit offences. Of those, 6,000 would commit serious crimes such as rape, other sexual offences and murder.

Shocking

Cooper said: "The Home Secretary is making it harder for the police to catch criminals and cut crime.

"It is shocking that 23,000 fewer criminals each year will be on the DNA database making it harder for the police to catch offenders. And it is outrageous that ministers have hidden these figures from the public, the police and parliament.

"The Home Secretary seems hell-bent on weakening the ability of the police to fight crime."

Everyone arrested for a "recordable offence" has their DNA profile taken and stored on the national DNA database, set up in 1997.

But in a landmark ruling three years ago, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that keeping innocent people's records breached their rights to privacy and family life.

Last night, a source close to May said: "There is no cover-up and I don't know how they can say that 23,000 people arrested but not charged will each year go on to commit a crime."