LONDON, England - August 16, 2008 - Nearly 40,000 innocent children have been placed on the Government's enormous DNA database for life, ministers admitted last night.

The number of ten to 17-year-olds who have done nothing wrong yet have had their genetic profiles seized by police has soared by 60 per cent in two years.

The news will fuel mounting fears that forces are arresting youngsters who have committed no crime simply to build up their DNA database by 'stealth'.

The scale of the gathering operation was revealed by Home Office minister Meg Hillier. She confirmed the database held the records of 303,393 children whose genetic profiles can be checked against any crime scene.

Of these, 39,095 - or 12.8 per cent - had 'not been convicted, cautioned, received a final warning or reprimand and had no charge pending against them'.

The controversial figures, slipped out in a written Parliamentary answer, provoked condemnation yesterday.

Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'This is yet more evidence that the DNA database is totally arbitrary, with tens of thousands of innocent kids on it but not every offender in our prisons.'

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said it was wrong to store the DNA of innocent people. He pointed out that the database does not contain data on many convicted criminals.

“These figures show that the Government is building a national DNA database by stealth. There can be no excuse for storing the DNA of innocent adults, let alone children, who are entirely blameless. This is an intrusive policy that gives far too much sensitive information to the state, when we know that ministers cannot be trusted with its security. The DNA that should be on the database is that of past offenders, yet when it comes to them, there are major gaps in the database,” said Huhne.