A Government plan to store thousands of innocent peoples DNA samples on a national database, has been redressed. Now adults arrested but later cleared of violent and sexual offences will have their DNA removed from the database after six years instead of the proposed twelve.

The latest Home Office figures show that the UK database is the largest in the world, containing 5,910,172 DNA profiles.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the human rights organisation Liberty, said: “It seems the Government still refuses to separate the innocent and the guilty and maintains a blanket approach to DNA retention.

“This grudgingly modified policy creates a repeat collision course with the courts and ministers look stubborn rather than effective or fair.”

“Nobody disputes the value of DNA and anyone arrested can have a sample taken and compared to crime scenes.

“But stockpiling the intimate profiles of millions of innocent people is an unnecessary recipe for error and abuse.”

Ministers argue that holding profiles of those without criminal convictions is needed to track down offenders.

The announcement follows a ruling in the European Court of Human Rights last year that said holding indefinitely profiles from everyone who was arrested was “blanket and indiscriminate”.

Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Seretary, said: “Alan Johnson [the Home Secretary] just doesn’t seem to understand that there is a fundamental principle at stake here — that people are innocent until proven guilty.

Twelve children suffered amputations after getting their fingertips caught in the hinges of Maclaren folding pushchairs. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said that customers should stop using the pushchairs immediately.

All Maclaren single and double umbrella pushchairs, including the popular Volo and Triumph, Quest Sport, Quest Mod, Techno XT, Techno XLR, Twin Triumph, Twin Techno and Easy Traveller were voluntarily recalled by the firm in the US. The company said that products sold in the UK were not affected by the recall.

In a joint statement with Maclaren USA, the CPSC said: “The stroller’s hinge mechanism poses a fingertip amputation and laceration hazard to the child when the consumer is unfolding/opening the stroller.”

It said the firm had received 15 reports of children placing their finger in the pushchair’s hinge mechanism, “resulting in 12 reports of fingertip amputations in the United States”.

Maclaren USA offered users a free "repair kit" — a set of hinge covers to remedy the problem.

BT is warning customers to be on their guard after a series of phone scams involving people claiming to be calling from the company. The scammers call up their victim and warn them that their account is in arrears.

They then ask for card or bank details in order to settle the account. If the person refuses or asks for proof, the fraudsters then offer to prove who they are by disconnecting the phone line then and there.

Once the victim puts the phone down, the scammer stays connected to their line, thus giving the impression that the customer's line no longer works.

Andrew West nearly fell foul of the scammers' latest ploy in August, but he quite quickly became suspicious of the caller's true identity. He said: "It was the lack of background chatter initially; there was no call centre noise in the background, which there always is when someone from a big company calls you.

"The line wasn't very good quality anyway, which was a bit strange, but it was the trick with the phones that really tipped me off."

Evidence shows this type of phone scam has been happening all over the country. Last weekend a number of elderly people in Suffolk fell victim to the scam; there have also been cases in the past year all over England and Wales.

Graham Preston, the lead officer for scams at Trading Standards, admits this type of phone fraud is around.

"Scams sadly are very common, they are variations of a theme and this particular scam seems to be prevalent at the moment," he said. He warns people to be on guard.

"In terms of advising people, keep your wits about you, be cynical. If somebody calls you, mistrust them if you have to, or don't trust them," he said.

"Particularly if they are asking for money, if they want your credit card details don't be afraid to say no," he added.

Mr West ended up writing about his experience in his blog to warn other people about the trick. He admits the experience upset him.

"I was a bit unsettled by it. I think it's one of those ones that if you didn't happen to know the trick, you could be easily taken in by it. It just makes you feel a bit nervous, " he added.

BT says it does sometimes make calls to customers about debt — but stresses that it never carries out disconnections during the call. It advises customers not to give out any banking details over the phone unless they are absolutely certain who they are dealing with.