‘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.