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

The first paper to examine the political and policy response to the UK's loss at the ECtHR in S & Marper in December 2008. This loss demanded a radical re-think of the UK's DNA retention regime and became a focus for intense political debate. The paper dissects both political manouvering, and legislative promises around the time of a general election and the rationales provided for posited changes.This the paper does within a critical framework, highlighting the lack of either practical or principled debate encompassing ideas such as effectiveness or proportionality, that were stressed by the European Court of Human Rights.