More than 25,000 DNA profiles have been uploaded onto the national database by West Midlands Police in the last year, it has been revealed. Just under 5,000 of them were from youngsters under the age of 18.

The figures were released under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Policing Improvement Agency, which oversees the database.

It states the West Midlands Police force uploaded a total of 25,604 subject profiles in the 12 months between October 2008 and October 2009.

Some 4,929 were from under 18s and the youngest of these were aged 10 when they were loaded onto the system and the oldest was between 85 and 95 —the organisation wouldn’t state exactly how old the person was in case it identified them.

Those uploaded were arrested or detained and had a DNA sample taken by the force or volunteered a sample to the force perhaps to help in an investigation.

Anyone who volunteers their DNA sample to help with a criminal investigation needs to give written consent for the sample to be taken by police. That sample would be used for the duration of the investigation of the case, and then destroyed.

Volunteers also have the option for their DNA to be loaded to the National DNA Database. If they choose this option a second written consent is again required, and that sample would remain on the database forever.

West Midlands Police Chief Constable Chris Sims said: “West Midlands Police is the second largest force in England and Wales and as a result will have one of the highest numbers of samples on the DNA database.

“Young people arrested for serious crimes which have a direct and damaging impact on the lives of families in the West Midlands routinely have their DNA samples taken as long as the offence is deemed recordable by the Home Office.

“More than half the samples taken from youths under 16 followed arrests for criminal damage, violent crime, theft, robbery or burglary.”

By Helen Cartwright