Forensic Science Service

Written evidence submitted by Dr Denise Syndercombe Court
(FSS 17)

What will be the impact of the closure of the Forensic Science Service on forensic science and on the future development of forensic science in the UK?

1. The FSS has, over the years, had considerable influence on the development and practice of forensic science, not only in the UK, but also internationally, offering training and consultancy support to many countries worldwide. They have a large R&D section employing extremely experienced research scientists who are unlikely, in the main, to be re-employed in the case-work vacuum that will need to be filled.

2. In Europe, most forensic services have grown from university departments of legal medicine. These have never existed in the UK, and there was never the need because of the government funded FSS.

3. This has also meant that there has never been opportunities for funding forensic science research in university departments throughout England and Wales through the Research Councils. Most universities with an interest in forensic science offer taught courses only with limited research taking place as part of student projects. I conduct research in forensic science and fund this, and employ scientists and fund PhDs entirely through forensic work that I bring into my institution as there is no charitable funding available to me. This research is much more limited than I would want because of the need to provide the necessary funds.

4. Other commercial companies working in the UK developed out of the Laboratory of the Government Chemist and organisations involved in DNA testing for immigration and other purposes and about five years ago the FSS also became a private government owned company. Others will need to come into the market rapidly if the approximately 60% of the FSS contracts are to be redeployed to other institutions within the planned closure time.

5. The loss to the future of forensic science stems from this decision, more than its closure now, because any research that was done was not used to benefit forensic science particularly in the UK, or worldwide, but kept in house and promoted for commercial gain.

6. To their credit, I believe that the FSS continued to understand the importance of research in this area and maintained a significant R&D department, although slimmed down and constrained by commercial propriety.

7. I believe that other countries, across Europe and the US, will take the lead in forensic science innovation in the future as they are better and more freely funded - through university funding across Europe and through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US.

What will be the implications of the closure on the quality and impartiality of forensic evidence used in the criminal justice system?

8. The need for other organisations to take on the major part of existing contracts will provide a considerable challenge. Simply increasing capacity by the companies already in the market will, in my opinion, not be possible.

9. New companies entering the market will need to set up systems that will need to be accredited before they can be considered reliable providers of a forensic service. Even though these institutions might benefit from the large number of trained FSS scientists now on the job market it will not simply be a case of them being employed using the same systems currently in place in the FSS. They will all need retraining and the set up costs of a new or expanding organisation, and the time and cost of accreditation, are not small.

10. The availability of trained staff will depend on where new commercial institutions are going to be based. Staff who will be about to lose their jobs will not wait too long for forensic-related opportunities to become available and they also may have commitments and ties that mean they are not easily able to move to other areas in the country.

11. Quality will inevitably suffer in the interim, not only because of timing issues, because investigation of crime does not stop and the work cannot simply be put on hold. There will also be an increase in crime that will need forensic examination associated with the Olympics in 2012 and the UK is unlikely to have a fully efficient service by then. One of the difficulties here will be pressure applied through the criminal justice system that may result in work not being done to the highest quality levels, which may lead to a miscarriage of justice.

12. The efficient transfer of ongoing cases is a major problem. There is a considerable amount of documentation that is held by the FSS over many years that may need to be re-examined if a case is to be reopened. Where is this material going to be held? I have already personal experience of needing to conduct a forensic examination in which the case is due to start in one week's time and the paperwork has not yet been located since the closure of one of the FSS sites at the end of the year. This problem may also result in the case being delayed at considerable additional expense to all concerned - this is just a single example and there are likely to be many others.

13. Commercialisation does influence impartiality, in my opinion. A forensic scientist has the duty to the court to give evidence only within their expertise but I see some scientists working in commercial institutions who are more interested in 'helping' the court by providing 'expert' evidence, so as not to allow criticism of their organisation by being unable to answer the relevant questions, than concern over the accuracy of their expert opinion, or even acknowledging this is an area that they do not have the appropriate expertise. I would emphasise that this is not something that always occurs, but it does happen and I would be unaware of the extent.

14. Commercialisation produces products (techniques, ideas, software) for use in forensic science that are not open for examination by others, because they are proprietary and have been developed for financial gain in the market place. That does not fit well with the fair examination of the science which may lead to conviction of a suspect.

15. All that does not mean to say that this work will not be revealed to a scientist who is properly conducting a defence, but it is extremely difficult for someone working outside an organisation to get hold of it, or even be aware of its existence in what is often a very short time after instruction. It is sometimes necessary to make compromises in order to meet the constraints of the court requirements, but then have to reveal to the court that one was not able to consider the matter fully because of the confidential nature of the material that needs to be considered. This may result in the case not being fairly considered by the court, or can result in further delays as the information is sought from the provider. Peer reviewed publication of techniques and processes is a way forward but, even when this does happen, it is often several years after the application has been implemented in case work.

What is the financial position of the Forensic Science Service?

16. I have no doubt that the FSS is currently costing the government a lot of money. I do not believe that a forensic science service can be properly and fully run as a profit, or even as a non-profit making organisation. Forensic science is a service to the criminal justice system and we do not expect, nor should we, expect to run such a service as an entirely commercial venture.

17. Of course it is right and proper that any organisation should be scrutinised and processes should be set up to ensure that it is run in an efficient and cost-effective way. 'Cost-effective' is not simply about being able to process the current case-work. Science strives to do things better, but that requires investment.

18. My understanding of the FSS is that, as a government owned organisation, it had already been tasked with producing an organisation that was efficient. There was apparently a programme in place that would make it a better organisation in commercial terms, and closures had already been implemented in order to achieve that end. The new government, however, apparently has taken the view that the current losses must be dealt with by closure, rather than allowing the FSS to achieve its aims in the previously planned time-scale.

19. My belief is that, in the end, this will prove more costly in other ways to the country, although these costs may prove difficult to document - a delayed case here, a miscarriage of justice there, a loss of conviction elsewhere.

What is the state of, and prospects for, the forensics market in the UK, specifically whether the private sector can carry out the work currently done by the Forensic Science Service and the volume and nature of the forensic work carried out by police forces?

20. Few, if any of the Police Forces will be offering forensic services at the required ISO 17025 or equivalent standard at the moment and development of an accredited service can take one to two years

21. As mentioned above, current providers are unlikely to be able to rapidly expand to take up the approximate 60% of the market share and new staff will have to undergo training

22. New organisations will take much longer to get off the ground

23. The current forensics market responds to calls for contracts by aiming to be cheaper and faster than their competitors. They will do that through the hiring of less experienced staff who they do not value as much in their role as scientists, simply as individuals to process the work. There is, correctly, research that goes on to reduce cost and speed up the process, and competition is helpful in driving that, but if it results in 'black box technology' that cannot be fully evaluated, that will produce additional and unseen costs to the criminal justice system, while increasing the profits to the private organisation. That can never be to the benefit of the UK tax payer.

What are the alternatives to winding-down the Forensic Science Service?

24. They could be allowed to continue with the process put in place by the last government but that is not the only answer

25. What is essential is the commitment by the government to provide for sufficient funds so that forensic science research can be done in the UK. The UK has been at the forefront of forensic research worldwide but that position is rapidly declining and soon we will have no voice in an area where I, for one, have been proud of the achievements and the high esteem with which UK forensic science has been viewed.

26. Case-work will, in my opinion, suffer in the short term, with inevitable delays and likely miscarriages, but will in the end pick up. But the fair and just forensic science that has been prosecuted in the UK will no longer continue and will be limited to what can be done easily.

27. Cases that demand more experienced scientific work will no longer be able to be undertaken and it may be that experience will have to be gained, at greater cost, from scientists outside the UK.

So far as they are known, are the arrangements for closing down the Forensic Science Service, making staff redundant and selling its assets adequate?

28. I would hope that someone is considering this, but it is not something that I would be aware of. I am aware that current staff are simply looking for jobs and have no idea where their future lies and do not appear to have received any information that is useful to them.

29. I understand that, as part of the management plans of the FSS, a considerable amount of money has been spent on robotic and expert systems in order to reduce staff costs, with the staff presumably being lost gradually through natural wastage and voluntary redundancy schemes. While some of these assets may benefit a new organisation, again they may not fit into companies that have their own systems already in place, and may not suit the requirements of a new organisation, and so there may be a significant loss here as well.

Dr Denise Syndercombe Court

6 February 2011

Declaration of interests:

I am an academic working in a UK university that undertakes teaching and research in the area of forensic science and medicine. I run an ISO17025 accredited laboratory undertaking analysis of tissue for human identification. I have never been employed by the FSS or any of the other commercial laboratories although I have undertaken specialist consultancy or case work on occasions.