The NDNAD has proved to be a useful tool in the fight against crime. Many people though are worried about how it has evolved from a criminal to a more general database. Today, around one million innocent people, including children, live with the stigma of being on a police database along with known criminals. Specific groups such as young people and black men, make up a disproportionate number of those included.

The permanent storage of DNA profiles and samples is seen as a particular threat. While a DNA profile says very little about someone, their DNA potentially can say everything – including their ethnicity or how susceptible they are to disease. The potential risk of data abuse is high.

The Protection of Freedoms Bill goes a long way to redress the balance between the State’s duty to protect the public and an individual’s right to privacy. Should the bill become law in 2011-2012, the records of innocent people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be deleted and the original samples destroyed.

Another contentious issue is how the database is put to use and how this is decided. Requests to access the database may be for purposes for which the data was never intended and for which individual consent almost certainly hasn't been given. Already, familial searching* and some genetic research has been allowed. The 2008 Counter-Terrorism Act also allows security personnel to ‘biologically’ track and identify individuals.

As genetic databases become increasingly common in other countries the sharing of data with international police forces is likely to increase. Deliberate abuse of the data, for example by criminals, could become a real danger.

*Looking for a partial match when an identical match is not found for a crime scene profile. A partial match may indicate a close genetic relative of the person who committed the crime.