One in 10 children will be on the national DNA database by next year - including almost 50 under 10, it emerged last night.

The news has prompted concerns from civil liberties campaigners that Britain is becoming a "surveillance state".

The Conservatives said the country was "witnessing the end of the presumption of innocence in our country, especially for our young people".

New figures show the DNA profiles of 44 children under 10 are on the database even though they are below the age of criminal responsibility.

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They are among more than one million taken from youngsters under 18 - many of whom have never committed an offence.

The database now contains more than 4.3 million profiles and is growing at more than half a million a year.

By next year, it is predicted that 1.5 million will be from youngsters who were aged between 10 and 18 when their profiles were added.

With an estimated 13.1 million children under 18 in the UK in 2006, it means that as many as one in 10 children could be on the database by 2009.

Researchers say more than 1.1 million young people been added between 1995, when the database started, and April last year. When the youths become adults they are reclassified, resulting in a much lower number of minors being recorded.

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