Black Mental Health UK: Westminster DNA database debate to highlight the criminalisation of vulnerable black patients

Human rights group, Black Mental Health UK have welcomed Sarah Tether MP's securing a House of Commons debate on the discriminatory impact of the National DNA Database on black and ethnic minority people.

With African Caribbean's routinely entering mental health services via the police or criminal justice system BMH UK are calling for the removal of the names of thousands of black patients that have been added to the database during the process of getting mental health care.

The National DNA Database adjournment debate will come before parliament on Friday 29th February 2008 at approximately 2:30pm.

The government's own figures suggest that 77% of young black men will soon have their details held on the database, despite evidence that black people are actually no more likely to have committed a crime than white people.

The UK has the largest National DNA Database in the world, with 4.5 million profiles set to be held by the Government by 2010. There are currently 500,000 people on the database who have no current conviction, caution, formal warning or reprimand.

'The injustices of bad science could lead to innocent people being condemned in the future. The public have no way of knowing how secure this information is that they are taking. If someone steals your DNA what the implications? Loosing Child benefit details is one thing, but a persons DNA is part of who they are. This is another hostile move against the freedom and civil liberty that should be protected.

When people who need help are taken in by the Police we find that they are very quick to take a swab rather than ensure the wellbeing of the person, and we always that this would be the case just like stop and search,' Rev Paul Grey of New Testament Church of God said.

'Pathways into care for black patients are invariably via the police or criminal justice system, this means that countless people with healthcare needs are being criminalised in the process of seeking help. It is disturbing to know that those needing healthcare are on a criminal database, where ever this is the case it is imperative that their details are removed as quickly as possible. This begs the question, what kind of a society criminalises those who need help?' Matilda MacAttram director of Black Mental Health UK said.

'The database most unwelcome and is bringing division rather than healing within our communities, as it is our young people being stopped by the police, often for no justifiable reason.

We have no confidence in the Government controlling this, in light of the recent data losses we have seen, and this information in the wrong hands could be catastrophic,' pastor Desmond Hall, chair of Christians Together in Brent said.

"The over-representation of black people on the Labour Government's database should horrify anyone who cares about justice and fair play. There is a real danger that the DNA database just reinforces the myth that black people are more likely to commit crime, and that is a very dangerous untruth. "The truth is, if you are black, you are no more likely to commit crime and more likely to be a victim of crime,' Local Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East Sarah Teather said.


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Notes to the editor

· Black Mental Health UK is a human rights campaigns group established to address the over representation of African Caribbean's within secure psychiatric care and raise awareness to address the stigma associated with mental health.


· African Caribbean's are 50% more likely to enter the system via the criminal justice system or the police. 44% more likely to be sectioned, 29% more likely to be forcibly restrained, 50% more likely to be placed in seclusion and make up 30% of in patients on medium secure psychiatric wards despite having similar rates of mental illness as British white people.

· Statewatch reported that black men were six times more likely to be stopped and searched than white men and Asian men twice as likely, under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984. Under the Terrorism Act (2000), the number of stop and searches of Asian people had risen by 285 per cent and by 229 per cent for black people.

· 14 per cent of all stop and searches were of black people – even though they make up just 3 per cent of the residential population and 7 per cent of the street population.

· BMH UK are calling for all individuals who have not been convicted of any crime to have their details removed from the National DNA register.