Forensics closures will undermine global reputation

The UK’s standing among the best in the world in forensics will be dented by the closure of the Forensic Science Service (FSS), a regulator has said.

Andrew Rennison, the forensic science regulator, said the FSS represented the UK on the international stage and the country’s reputation would “undoubtedly” be dented when it closes next spring.

The warning comes after Yorkshire police chiefs raised fears that major crime investigations could be hampered by the controversial Government plans to close the FSS, including a laboratory in Wetherby that helped to solve notorious cases.

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Mr Rennison said: “I think it will be dented. If you close the FSS, which has represented the UK on the international stage, of course it will be dented. But there are plenty of other companies who do plenty of good research.”

Mr Rennison also called for statutory powers to help him regulate standards in police laboratories and elsewhere.

Many labs currently fall short of accepted standards and risk assessments will take place in the “very near future” to decide whether any of the work should be stopped immediately.

“As I engage more and more with some police forces I’m beginning to realise the need to have more muscle behind me to enforce some of this,” he said. “There’s a real risk of taking work out of (the FSS-accredited environment) into a non-accredited environment.

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“You can’t inoculate against failures, but you can manage the risk. If you then take that work into a non-accredited environment the risk shoots to high, but the impact is very high because you haven’t got a leg to stand on,” he said.

But Crime Prevention Minister James Brokenshire denied that outsourcing forensics work to police forces and the private sector would lead to more murderers and rapists escaping justice.

“There is no reason to suggest that private sector providers will not be able to deliver,” he said.

The FSS is said to be losing £2m a month and will be wound down by March 2012, giving police chiefs less than a year to find private companies which can carry out the work to the same standard.

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It means samples may have to be taken away from Yorkshire for analysis because of a lack of appropriate service providers, lengthening investigations and costing forces millions of pounds.

South Yorkshire Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes claimed the closure of the FSS will have a “disproportionate effect” on police in Yorkshire and the North East because they rely more on the service than other constabularies.

Mr Rennison also warned this week that universities offering courses in forensics must be careful not to make false promises over future jobs that graduates may not be qualified to do.

He said the subject was so popular that simply including “forensics” in the title of a chemistry course could increase applications 10-fold, but some academics have branded the practice immoral as students are left with “no real prospect of jobs”