A senior judge has called for the entire population and anyone visiting Britain to have their DNA placed on a national database.

Lord Justice Sedley said that a nationwide bank of DNA profiles would help to tackle crime and correct an imbalance in profiles stored by police.

His comments prompted condemnation from civil liberties groups, who said that it showed scant regard for the liberty of individuals.

There are 4.1 million people whose DNA is recorded on the police computer, more than in any other country. The vast majority of the profiles were obtained by arresting officers who are allowed to take samples from anyone detained for a “recordable offence” – a crime that could lead to imprisonment. The samples are kept whether the person is convicted or acquitted.

Sir Stephen Sedley, one of England’s most experienced Appeal Court judges, claims that it would be fairer to obtain the DNA from the whole of the British population whether involved in crime or not.

“Where we are at the moment is indefensible,” he said. “We have a situation where if you happen to have been in the hands of the police, then your DNA is on permanent record. If you haven’t, it isn’t.” He added: “It also means that a great many people who are walking the streets, and whose DNA would show them guilty of crimes, go free.”

He said expanding the database to cover the whole population had “very serious but manageable implications”.

Britain’s 12-year-old DNA database is currently growing by 30,000 samples a month. According to the Home Office, 5.2 per cent of the population is on the database, compared with 0.5 per cent in the US.

Tony McNulty, the Home Office Minister, said that he was “broadly sympathetic” to the idea but that there were no plans for a voluntary, national or compulsory scheme. He said: “There is a logic to what Sir Stephen is saying. But I think he probably does underestimate the practicalities, logistics and huge civil liberties and ethics issues.”

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights organisation Liberty, described a database of every man, woman and child as “a chilling proposal, ripe for error and abuse”.A spokesman for the Home Office said that it was undertaking a review of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, which sets out the powers to take biometric data.

Last month it emerged that a new profile is added to the national DNA database every 45 seconds.

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