The DNA profiles of 800,000 innocent citizens stored on police databases are to be destroyed, the government will announce this week.
The move follows a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in December that keeping the samples "could not be regarded as necessary in a democratic society".
Those on the England and Wales database despite having no criminal conviction include people who were arrested but never charged and others who have been acquitted in court.
Police argued the information was a key weapon in fighting crime but civil rights groups welcomed the government announcement, to be made by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith this week.
Miss Smith told the Observer: "It is crucial that we do everything we can to keep the public safe from crime and bring offenders to justice. The DNA database plays a vital role in helping us do that. However, there has to be a balance between the need to protect the public and respecting their rights. Based on risks versus benefits, our view is that we can now destroy all samples."
In reality the government had little choice but to comply with the human rights court ruling.
The database is the biggest of its kind in the world per head of population, with around 4.5 million profiles held, and is seen by the police as a vital crime fighting tool, helping to solve hundreds of high profile murders and rapes.
But more than 800,000 on the database – including 40,000 children – do not have a criminal record.
Despite opposition to the use of the DNA database, the government insists it can play an essential role in fighting crime. The Home Office says that between April 1998 and September 2008 there were more than 390,000 crimes with DNA matches.
DNA has played an essential part in solving thousands of cases. It helped in the conviction of Mark Dixie for the murder of Sally Ann Bowman, the 18-year-old model murdered close to her home in Croydon, south London, in 2005, and the conviction of Steve Wright for the murder of five prostitutes in Ipswich.
It has also played a crucial role in proving innocence and overturning miscarriages of justice. Earlier this year DNA was a vital factor in proving the innocence of Sean Hodgson, who spent nearly 30 years in prison for the death of a young woman in 1979.
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