Calls to put the DNA of every UK resident on a national database are impractical, the government has said.

Senior police officers have argued for a universal register after two killers were convicted on DNA evidence.

Suffolk serial murderer Steve Wright and Sally Anne Bowman's killer, Mark Dixie, were both captured because their DNA was taken after unrelated offences.

The Home Office said a mandatory database "would raise significant practical and ethical issues".

The DNA database, which covers England and Wales, currently contains around 4.5m profiles - routinely taken from criminal suspects after most arrests.

It is already the largest of its kind in the world.

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'Reasonable and proportionate'

Steve Wright was on the system after being convicted of theft in 2003, and when police found his DNA on the bodies of some of his victims they matched it with his profile.

But Mark Dixie was not on the system at the time of Sally Anne Bowman's murder.

It was only when Dixie was arrested for assault after a fight in a bar that his DNA was taken and he was linked to the murder.

He was arrested within five hours.

Det Supt Stuart Cundy, who led the murder hunt which led to Dixie's conviction, said: "It is my opinion that a national DNA register - with all its appropriate safeguards - could have identified Sally Anne's murderer within 24 hours.

"Instead it took nearly nine months before Mark Dixie was identified and almost two and a half years for justice to be done."

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) is also calling for a debate on the issue.

Lincolnshire's Chief Constable, Tony Lake, who speaks for the association on DNA, said he was not convinced by the need for a universal database but recognised the arguments on both sides.

He said: "If there was a national database of everybody then we would solve more crime, of that there is absolutely no doubt.

Full article here.