A debate held at Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry on the possibility of recording the DNA of the entire UK population showed overwhelming opposition to the proposals, plus a swing even further against them over the course of the evening.

Dr Carole McCartney, lecturer in Criminal Justice at the University of Leeds, presented a strong case for the presumption of innocence in our society, and highlighted the ineffectiveness of mass DNA storage on actually solving crimes. Dave Page, Manchester NO2ID Co-Ordinator, highlighted the relative value of spending money on a universal DNA database compared with thousands more policemen.

Dave Page added "A universal DNA database is an expensive waste of time. Most people never commit any crime, and most people who do commit crime re-offend. There is a sensible balance between keeping costs and false leads down, and genuine leads up, and it is far from the universal proposal. In addition, a universal DNA database is near-useless without a universal identity database, and we have seen the vast expense, risk and other issues with that."