Consistency across laboratories
and police forces
4. In 2001-02, three laboratories (London, Chorley
and Priory House in Birmingham) processed 73% of the Agency's
cases. Only one of the Agency's seven laboratories (Wetherby)
achieved the target to meet 93% of agreed delivery dates. The
worst performance was at London and Trident Court in Birmingham,
with only 86 and 79% respectively met. Analysed by reference to
the Agency's main customers, the 93% target was missed for some
32 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales. Performance varied
from at best 96% for one force to 85% for the lowest.[8]
5. The Agency reported progress since 2001-02, with
six of its seven laboratories achieving the 93% target in September
2003. New figures[9] provided
by the Agency at the hearing indicated that, in 2003-04, over
90% of agreed delivery dates were being met for all police forces.
The Metropolitan Police Service's previous requirement that all
its evidence must be dealt with at the Agency's London laboratory,
had restricted the Agency's ability to match demand to capacity
across sites. The removal of this restriction had led to greater
flexibility in distributing the workload and the proportion of
work dealt with by the three biggest laboratories had dropped
to 49%.[10]
6. Progress had been made at Trident Court, with
83% of agreed delivery dates being met by September 2003. This
laboratory deals only with very specialist forensic analysis,
which often involves innovative types of research, making timescales
difficult to predict.[11]
DNA analysis
7. The Agency analysed 555,000 DNA samples in 2001-02.
The number of suspect samples[12]
and crime scene samples[13]
processed by the Agency for inclusion on the National DNA Database
(Figure 3) has increased significantly since 1997-98, largely
as a result of the Home Office's DNA Expansion Programme. In September
2002, the average time for processing a suspect sample for inclusion
on the database was five days, compared to 350 days in March 1997,
although demand for this service had more than doubled in the
same period.[14]
8. The Agency reported that, at September 2003, the
average turnaround time for suspect samples was 3.5 days. Crime
scene samples, on the other hand, typically wait 14 days for analysis,
yet the work itself takes no more than 36 hours. The analysis
of suspect samples had been automated and the Agency was rolling
out the same process to crime scene samples. The Agency was confident
that crime scene samples would be processed within three days
by March 2006 and, indeed, expected to have excess capacity to
process both suspect and crime scene samples by March 2004. The
Agency said it was involved in research with a view to establishing
capacity to analyse DNA in one hour.[15]

4 C&AG's Report, highlighted box above para 2.3 Back
5
7th Report from the Committee of Public Accounts, The
Forensic Science Service (HC 321, Session 1998-99) Back
6
C&AG's Report, paras 2.7, 2.12, 2.17-2.18 Back
7
Qq 3-10, 48-49, 96-111; The Forensic Science Service Annual
Report and Accounts 2002-03, p18 Back
8
C&AG's Report, paras 1.15, 2.12 Back
9
These figures have not been validated by the NAO Back
10
Qq 5, 8, 51-53 Back
11
Qq 6-7, 170-171 Back
12
DNA samples taken from suspects Back
13
DNA samples taken from items found at a crime scene Back
14
C&AG's Report, paras 1.10, 2.15 Back
15
Qq 85, 97-98, 143-147 Back