A massive expansion in the Government's DNA database has brought fewer than a thousand criminals to justice, it was revealed last night.

For every 800 DNA samples being added by the police - including those taken from innocent people - only one crime is being solved.

The revelation undermines Labour's case for the expansion of the controversial database, which contains the details of more than a million innocent people.

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Ministers claim storing samples taken from those who are never convicted or charged has proved a crucial weapon in the fight against crime.

But figures to be published in the annual DNA database report, due later this month, will show a huge increase in the size of the database has had very little impact on the number of offences being solved.

In 2006/7 661,433 samples were added - which amounts to 75 genetic records being created every hour.

But the number of crimes detected using the DNA entries increased by only 839 from 2005/6, to 41,148. It is the equivalent of only one extra crime being solved for every 788 new samples entered on the database.

Opponents said it was proof that holding on to the DNA records of people who had done nothing wrong was not the answer. Questions were also raised about whether the database is providing value for money. Storing more than 660,000 extra samples last year cost around £3million - or £3,575 for each extra crime detected.

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