West Yorkshire Police has defended its storing of DNA samples from nearly 800 innocent young people.

Genetic details from the under-18s have been kept on a hi-tech database, even though they have not been charged, cautioned or convicted of an offence.

New figures have revealed West Yorkshire has one of the largest databases of information on young people who were arrested but later released.

The number of people aged ten to 18 whose details have been stored was revealed by Home Office minister Andy Burnham, who defended the practice, following questions in the House of Commons.

As of December last year, the database for West Yorkshire held 773 samples - the tenth highest in England and Wales.

The Metropolitan Police had the most with 3,538.

Mr Burnham said: "Taking a DNA sample and fingerprints from someone who has been arrested for a recordable offence and detained in a police station is now part of the normal process within a police custody suite.

"It is no different to recording other forms of information such as photographs and witness statements.

"Early research has shown that sampling persons who have been arrested but not proceeded against has yielded a match with a crime scene in more than 3,000 offences.

"These links may never have been made had the police not been given powers to take and retain samples on arrest.

"Retention of the DNA profile on the National DNA Database may prove to be vitally important in the event of a person committing a crime in the future."

The database holds details on more than three million people including 127,000 whose details were added when they were younger than 18.

In total, 140,000 - 24,000 juveniles - are on the database but were never charged or cautioned.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: "As one of the larger metropolitan forces, West Yorkshire understandably has a higher amount of recorded DNA than smaller forces.

"This, in turn, reflects a greater percentage of under-18s.

"Under current legislation we are able to take samples from anyone arrested on suspicion of an offence. Even if the arrest does not result in a charge, this DNA can be kept on a database for intelligence purposes."