EU-UK: Major victory in the European Court of Human Rights: ECHR finds that the UK practice of keeping the fingerprints and DNA of people not convicted of an offence is a violation of Article 8 of the ECHR Convention

Marper case press release (pdf) and full text of Marper judgment (pdf). The Court findings are expressed in damning terms of UK law and practices. UK Background: ECHR: Marper v UK case concerning the retention of fingerprints and DNA: Summary of the case (pdf) and Detailed expert submission on DNA and fingerprints (pdf), Comments posed by the ECHR in the case of S. and Marper (APPLICATION 30562/04 & 30566/04) and which relate to the application of data protection law to the retention of DNA personal data by Chris Pounder (pdf) and Historical background article by Statewatch: Law enforcement and DNA technology: the irresistable march? UK database to be expanded, EU member states to begin exchanging DNA “profiles” (pdf) EU background: Council of the European Union: DNA compiling of the answers (EU doc no: 9445/1/06 Rev 1) and the incorporation of the Prum Treaty into the EU: COUNCIL DECISION on the implementation of Decision 2008/…/JHA on the stepping up of cross border cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism and cross-border crime (pdf) and Statewatch article: Searching for Needles in an ever expanding haystack: Cross-border DNA data exchange in the wake of the Prum Treaty with EU country-by-country DNA figures (pdf). And context : Statewatch’s: The Shape of Things to Come (pdf)