Hundreds of thousands of DNA and fingerprint samples face being removed from police national databases after a court ruled today that holding details of people with no criminal convictions breaches human rights laws.

The European Court of Human rights said in a landmark judgment that retaining the fingerprints and DNA samples of people acquitted of crime, or when proceedings are dropped, breaches a person's right to respect for private life.

Ministers have until March to decide how they will implement the judgement and no samples or fingerprints will be removed from the two datasbases until then.

An estimated 800,000 of the 5.1m samples on the DNA database are of people with no criminal conviction.

The options facing the Government are slim. They could adopt the position in Scotland where DNA samples taken during criminal investigations from people who are not charged or later acquitted of alleged offences are destroyed.

Another option is to see if there is some way in which it would be possible to continue to hold samples of people tried and cleared of serious offences such as murder, manslaughter, rape and serious violence or limiting the time samples of innocent people can be held.

The two men were awarded a total of £36,500 in costs but not cash compensation. Judges said their victory “with the consequences that this would bring for the future” could be regarded as sufficient compensation.

Today’s unanimous judgment at the Court in Strasbourg said that keeping DNA samples of innocent people on a criminal register amounted to discrimination and a breach of the “right to respect for private life” which is safeguarded by the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Government has no further right of appeal.

The decision is a victory for two Britons who have been fighting to have their DNA samples removed from the database after police insisted on keeping them.

Michael Marper, 45, was arrested in March 2001 and charged with harassing his partner. His fingerprints and DNA were taken, but before his trial he and his partner were reconciled and the case was later discontinued. Mr Marper from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, had no previous convictions.

In a separate case, a 19-year-old named in court only as S, was arrested and charged with attempted robbery in January 2001 when he was 12. S, also from Sheffield, was cleared five months later.

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