As long ago as 2008 the European Court ruled that the UK Police Forces were acting unlawfully in retaining indefinately DNA profiles, photographs and fingerprints of all arrested persons regardless as to whether they were ever charged or cautioned in respect of any offence.
This has proved to be a controversial development and there are a number of examples of DNA databases providing evidence of serious subsequent offending (the case of R v Hyang-Woo Pyo refers). It is the indefinate rentention of this information which has attracted criticism from the European Court and the UK Government will need to legislate about this.
