Sample problem for police as forensic service tests halted

Staff at the loss-making forensic service, which is due to be wound up by March next year, stopped processing motoring cases yesterday, forcing senior officers to search urgently for a private company ready to take on the work.

In the meantime, chief constables around the country have been advised to tell staff to refrigerate all blood and urine samples they collect from motorists suspected of driving while under the influence.

It is feared the delay, which is expected to take up to seven working days, could lead to a backlog of cases across Yorkshire. West Yorkshire Police, the country’s fourth largest force, arrests 300 drink drivers a month on average and North Yorkshire Police, which covers the UK’s largest county, prosecutes between 700 and 1,000 motorists a year.

The problem affects cases where suspected drink drivers opt for a blood test, are unable to provide a breath sample, or police equipment is faulty. It was revealed in a leaked memo to all chief constables from the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), which itself is due to be phased out by spring 2012.

The memo urged police forces not to make their own arrangements while the NPIA searched for “alternative suppliers”.

“We appreciate the challenges and difficulties that this change may cause your force,” it added. “However, we would ask that you continue to work with us whilst we resolve this issue.”

Former South Yorkshire Police officer Alan Jones, the Police Federation’s spokesman on roads policing, said: “If this is true then it is diabolical and this must be urgently addressed.

“It sets back the good work achieved to deter drink- and drug-driving and is not helping frontline policing.”

The move follows the Government’s decision to shut down the forensic service, which employs about 1,650 staff including 200 in Wetherby.

Scientists at the service have uncovered crucial evidence in some of Yorkshire’s most shocking cases, including investigations into the 7/7 bombings, the abduction of Dewsbury schoolgirl Shannon Matthews and the murder of Lesley Molseed, whose body was found on moorland near Ripponden in 1975.

Ministers said the service was losing £2m a month but more than 24,000 people have signed an online petition against its closure and the Prospect union has claimed the move will “make a mockery of the criminal justice system”.

The Home Office decision meant the service had to abort cost-saving plans to move its sample testing base from Chorley, Lancashire, to London. The Chorley centre will close next month.

It is understood Ministers and senior police were warned in December that the forensic service would stop handling drink-driving samples within weeks.

In a joint statement, the NPIA and the Association of Chief Police Officers said: “Swift arrangements will now be made to ensure that alternative suppliers provide the analysis for Road Traffic Act drink and drug cases. There are already other forensic suppliers who undertake this work.

“A small number of samples may be held by police forces whilst the new arrangements are put in place quickly, but this will have no impact on the criminal justice process.

“The transition arrangements for the work of the forensic service is being co-ordinated by a national team... to ensure there is no impact on operational policing.”