14% Of Names in UK DNA Database Are Incorrect

Via Gulf Times (Qatar) -

LONDON: Over 500,000 names on the DNA database are false, misspelt or incorrect, the government has admitted.

Ministers have disclosed that one in seven of the genetic profiles on the controversial database is a “replicate”, raising alarming questions about the integrity and accuracy of the entire system.

Around 4mn names are on the database, which is the biggest in the world, and holds details of rapists, murderers, and suspects arrested but not charged.

Thousands asked to give their details to police upon arrest have given false names or alternative spellings of their names. In other cases, mistakes have been made in the spelling of names.

Some files include names belonging to someone else, or names of people who do not exist. Altogether there are 550,000 “replica” files.

MPs have questioned whether the false data could lead to innocent people, whose names may have been maliciously given to police by suspects, being questioned about crimes they have not committed.

The revelation has led to fresh calls for an inquiry into the integrity of the system which has been dogged by controversy.

The government admits it does not know how many files in total are inaccurate: it has only calculated those with replica DNA samples elsewhere on the system.

Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, called for an urgent investigation and questioned why so much inaccurate information was on the system.

“If the database is to be of any use, then it has to be accurate. DNA data is open to abuse and this could allow people who mean no good to do no good. The more failsafe the police regard DNA, the easier it is to set someone up,” she said.