Inside England and Wales' DNA Regime

Sockatume writes "The UK's Human Genetics Commission has published its report on the collection of DNA by the Police forces in England and Wales. Currently, Police collect DNA from every suspect in a case which could lead to a criminal record, and retain that material, which the European Court of Human Rights has ruled illegal. The government plans to keep all DNA samples for suspects from England, Wales and Northern Ireland for up to six years, except for DNA from individuals arrested during terrorism-related investigations, which will be retained forever. The report states that the police frequently performed arrests solely to collect DNA, that certain demographics (such as young, black men) were 'very highly over-represented,' that there was 'very little concrete evidence' that the DNA database had any actual use in investigating crime, and that the database contained material from individuals arrested in Scotland and Northern Ireland, outside its remit. Of the 4.5m individuals in the database, a fifth have never received any convictions or cautions from the Police. The report recommends that an independent advisory body oversee the database, and that laws be passed to limit the uses of the database, while tracking those with access to it, and making misuse of the information a criminal offence."

Comments

Aside from Travel Adaptors and Passport

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

You will find that travelling to the United Kingdom requires little more preparation than a visit to any other state. :-)

Consider your visit as you would to Delaware, only with PAL and and DVD Region 2.

Difficulties with Wireless are non-existant. Since laptops generally have auto-switching power supplies, a mains-adaptor for the socket is all you require. Get a proper, British one. These have a FUSE in the adaptor. British mains are of varying conditioning and quality. 240 Volts is manly, compared to a piddling 115v US, and arcs have occurred! The United lounge at Heathrow terminal one gave a nasty puff of ozone and a loud crack, when I unplugged from a socket there, last June.

Regarding customs inspections? Be reasonable. It is always harder dealing with the aggressive robots in U.S. ports than it is with the merely weary Sikh gentlemen and distracted, west-indian, ladies who will get there shift over as-soon-as-possible in Heathrow and Birmingham.