DNA records of more than 1,500 innocent children and teenagers are being kept by North-East police forces, The Northern Echo can reveal.

The youngest is only ten, and their records have been kept despite the fact they have never been cautioned, charged or convicted

According to civil liberties campaigners - who want the database erased - some of them may simply have been witnesses to a crime.

The boom in the number of records held follows a change in the law in 2001, which allowed samples to be taken from people who had been acquitted of a crime, or arrested for a recordable offence but not charged.

Until May 2001, police were required to destroy the DNA samples and fingerprints of anyone arrested - but not charged - with a recordable offence. When the law was changed, ministers said the decision whether to retain the samples or not would be one for chief constables.

But, in a response to Tory questioning, ministers have now said they expect the samples to be retained in all but "exceptional circumstances".

Home Office figures show that every force in the region has stored large numbers. Durham has details of 504 youngsters, Northumbria holds 458 records, North Yorkshire 323 and Cleveland 156.

The samples can be mouth swabs, hairs, scrapings of skin or blood. They are preserved by the Forensic Science Service, a government agency that is "custodian" of the database and is based in Birmingham. The samples are accompanied by details, such as age, address or criminal record, supplied by police to identify the individual.

The revelation triggered Conservative claims that the Government was building a "DNA database by stealth", containing the guilty and innocent side-by-side.

But the Government has rejected demands that the samples should be deleted.

Instead, Home Office Minister Andy Burnham said the practice had allowed the police to match 541 teenage samples to crime scenes.

He said: "Inclusion on the database does not signify a criminal record and there is no personal cost or material disadvantage to the individual simply by being on it.

"Given this, and the clear evidence showing the substantial benefit in relation to the detection of serious crime, it is the judgement of the Government that the existing policy is justified."

But Damian Green, the Tory home affairs spokesman, said: "It is clear the Government is determined to set up a national DNA database by stealth.

"It is completely unacceptable for this intrusion into our lives to be made without Parliament having the chance to debate this dubious policy."

In total, about 200,000 samples have been retained nationwide, including from about 24,000 under-18s.

Mr Burnham pledged that no samples had been retained from under-tens, where they had been taken without the consent of a parent.

A spokeswoman from the human rights group Liberty said: "Thousands of juveniles are facing guilt by association because their DNA has been collected and retained.

"This precedent is worrying because police, rather than courts, are determining guilt."

The Association of Chief Police Officers said that taking samples from people of all ages who have not been convicted has produced more than 3,000 DNA matches with unsolved crimes, including murders and rapes.