‘Of weighty reasons and indiscriminate blankets: The retention of DNA for forensic purposes’

This paper explores the fallout from the decision in S & Marper v UK (2008), where the European Court of Human Rights, in ruling the UK´s DNA retention regime breached human rights, was `struck by the blanket and indiscriminate nature´ of the power to retain DNA and stated that the UK Government required `weighty reasons´ to justify the retention of DNA in cases of unconvicted individuals. Since the ruling, the UK Government has drafted a new retention regime but serious doubts remain whether the issue of DNA retention will have been satisfactorily resolved.