Human rights court damns UK fingerprint and DNA storage

5.00.00pm GMT Thu 4th Dec 2008

In a judgement today the European Court of Human Rights (which is not the EU court) has ruled that the UK government's refusal to delete the fingerprints and DNA of 2 British people not convicted of an offence, one of them 11 years old, was a breach of the privacy provisions of the European Convention of Human Rights as the policy 'could not be regarded as necessary in democratic society'.

London MEP Sarah Ludford, Liberal Democrat European justice and human rights spokeswoman, has recently led a successful campaign to set 12 - rather than 6 as many governments wanted - as the minimum age for fingerprinting for visas and passports in Europe. Commenting on today's judgement she said:

"This is a vindication of the Liberal Democrats' long campaign against this government's appalling disregard for privacy concerns. To retain the personal and highly sensitive biometric data of innocent people, including children, is a shockingly 'Big Brother' violation of civil liberties."

"Thank goodness we have European human rights safeguards - which also come into play in the form of guarantees about freedom of expression in the Damian Green case - to save us from the heavy hand of Labour-endorsed policing."

"The UK has the dubious distinction of being the only country, in the 46-member Council of Europe to which the ECHR applies, that allows the indefinite retention of fingerprint and DNA of anyone of any age who is at some point a suspect but is never charged or convicted. Given that British lawyers drafted the Convention, it is deeply shaming to what depths Labour has brought our rights."