DNA database rules face shake-up

Councils are routinely using anti-terror surveillance powers

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith wants to see changes to the rules covering the DNA database - including the removal of all children under 10 from it.

Ms Smith said DNA was a breakthrough for modern policing but changes were needed to put "safeguards... and common sense at the heart of" what was done.

The database is controversial because people who have never even been charged with an offence can be put on it.

Ms Smith said a Forensics White Paper next year would re-examine the rules.

In a speech to members of the technology industry at the Intellect trade association, Ms Smith also said councils who use anti-terror laws to spy on members of the public could face new restrictions.

She said they should not use the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) to snoop on people suspected of minor offences such as dog fouling or putting out rubbish on the wrong day.

But, in a speech, she will defend councils' right to use the powers against suspected rogue traders or fly tippers.

It comes amid growing concern local authorities and other public bodies, such as health trusts, are abusing their powers.

Ms Smith will say she wants applications for the use of Ripa to go to the top of organisations, such as the chief executive of a council, rather than the head of trading standards or environmental health.

'Disruptive neighbours'

The home secretary said: "While the vast majority of the investigations that are carried out under Ripa are important - like protecting the public from dodgy traders, trapping fly tippers who dump tonnes of rubbish on an industrial scale across the countryside, or tackling the misery caused by noisy and disruptive neighbours - there are clearly cases where these powers should not be used.

"I don't want to see these powers being used to target people for putting their bins out on the wrong day, for dog fouling offences, or to check whether paper boys are carrying sacks that are too heavy."

Ms Smith is launching a public consultation on new guidelines for local authorities and other public bodies on the use of Ripa powers.

Former shadow home secretary David Davis, who resigned in June to fight a by-election on civil liberties, welcomed the announcement.

"It is a step in the right direction, and a recognition by her of the gross abuse of this legislation that has occurred up and down the country."

Paper boys

But he added: "We still need to go further. It is time to restore some common sense and stop all local authority misuse of terrorism laws as 'catch-all' legislation to suit their own needs."

The police can use the powers to carry out surveillance, along with 474 local authorities in England, every fire service and NHS trust, prisons, the Environment Agency and the Royal Mail.

Most of the 519,260 applications made under the act in the past financial year were from the intelligence services and the police.

But local authorities are also routinely using the powers, with a survey in April suggesting covert surveillance had been carried out against such relatively trivial matters as dog fouling and littering.

In April this year, it emerged that Poole Borough Council in Dorset had used Ripa to spy on a family for three weeks to find out if they were really living in a school catchment area.

The council said the case was treated as potential criminal activity, which justified the use of the act.

The powers also came under attack after a local council in Cambridgeshire admitted using them to spy on paperboys suspected of working without permits.