Damian Green MP has won his appeal to have his DNA profile removed from the national database. His was "an exceptional case", apparently.

Exceptional only in the sense of position and persistence, I suspect. Many other innocent people find it impossible to get their records scrubbed.

Mr Green was arrested last November in connection with an investigation into leaks from the Home Office. He was never charged with any offence.

The others who find themselves in the same position have been unable to achieve the same success. Just 31 profiles have been deleted in the past six months by the Metropolitan Police.

The Home Office has justified retaining profiles, despite a ruling in the European Court, while it carries out a consultation, based on some of the thinnest arguments ever advanced even by that department. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail reports, chief police officers have been told to ignore the ruling.

Mr Green said that he wants every innocent person who has been arrested and whose records are being wrongly held to be treated the same, and their profiles eliminated. But the police and the Home Office will fight this, either by delay or direct defiance of the court.