Forensic Science Strategy Contents

Annex: Visits to the Metropolitan Police Forensic Services and LGC Forensics

Metropolitan Police Forensic Services

Two members of the Committee visited the Metropolitan Police Forensic Services in London on 24 May 2016: Victoria Borwick MP and Carol Monaghan MP.

The visit included discussion of issues involved in the Committee’s inquiry into the Forensic Science Strategy, as well as demonstrations of locally-deployable rapid testing machines for DNA and drugs and digital (phone/computer) content analysis equipment.

Key points from the discussions included:

The labs provided forensic examination services for the police, including in blood and body fluids, firearms, fingerprints, digital analysis, CCTV and other imagery analysis.
14% of recorded crime in the Met Police area involved some form of forensic intervention. Typically each year: 99,000 crime scenes are examined; there are 50,000 digital forensic examinations; 1,000 firearms are examined and 21,000 fingerprints. Overall, there are typically 250,000 forensic ‘cases’.
Typically each year: 14,000 suspects are identified through fingerprint or DNA matching, with matches to existing databases accounting for 40% of residential burglaries; 91% of ‘high priority’ fingerprint cases are completed within 24hrs; 137 urgent firearm examinations are completed within custody time-limits; and 470 urgent blood/fluids examinations are completed within 48hrs for sexually motivated/serious violent cases.
Financial budgets have been reducing, from £84m in 2012–13 to £74m in 2015–16. Pay budget to fall by a further £4.7m in 2016–17. 237 posts lost between 2013 and 2017. Savings have been a result of workload reductions overall (only partially offset by increasing digital forensic and imagery/CCTV work), overheads savings, estate consolidation and changing job roles. Further savings could be difficult to find.
A new Digital Forensics Operating Model was being implemented. This involved examinations at three levels—frontline police officers using one of 60 local ‘kiosks’, specialists at 8 hubs across London, and at the central laboratory. As at April 2016, 1000 police officers (out of 2000 eventually) had been trained for the kiosk processes. All the kiosks, hubs and the HQ lab are being connected, to allow results to be shared over the whole MPS police area.
Continuing development of ‘real time forensics’ services, using IT and new deployable equipment, offers the prospect of fingerprint identification within 1 hour instead of 2–5 days, drugs analysis in less than an hour rather than 2–5 days, and blood/fluid analysis in 2 hours rather than 2–15 days.
The MPS outsource DNA profiling, toxicology and drugs analysis. 60% of the forensics budget is spent on DNA profiling. Contracts are generally for 2–3 years and are complex and sometimes inflexible. ‘Partnership’ arrangements are now being negotiated to replace them, with 7+3yrs contracts which set a minimum (as well as variable) baseload to provide business certainty for the contractors. The new arrangements will include agreed processes for innovation and further development of services.
MPS forensic services that are covered by the Regulator’s Codes of Practice and Conduct are accredited to international standards.

LGC Forensics

Four members of the Committee visited LGC Forensics in London on 9 June 2016: Nicola Blackwood MP (chair), Victoria Borwick MP, Chris Green MP and Dr Tania Mathias MP.

The visit included discussion of issues involved in the Committee’s inquiry into the Forensic Science Strategy, presentations on the company’s history and strategies, as well as tours of the company’s DNA, digital and drug analysis laboratories.

Key points in the discussions included:

LGC’s work included calibration and standards/quality control, genomics and laboratory services, as well as forensics services. LGC also hosts the Government Chemist and National Measurement Institute. It provides services to Defra, MoD, DoH and the Food Standards Agency, as well as forensic services to the police.
On forensics, its annual workload typically includes dealing with: 230,000 arrestee DNA swab samples, 52,000 crime scene DNA items, 20,000 biology cases, 3,000 marks/traces, 21,000 controlled substance cases, 3,000 toxicology cases and 13,000 driver alcohol/drugs samples.
Forensics science deals with both questions of substantiation/corroboration (who did the blood come from?) and opinion (did the blood come from a hammer blow?). Both need robust systems of standards and independent accreditation.
The national crime detection rate is 26%, but this rises to 43% where DNA analysis is undertaken. For burglary it is 17% and 39%, and for theft from a vehicle 9% and 60%. Where DNA evidence is used, guilty pleas rise from 66% to 89%.
Before and following the closure of the Forensic Science Service in 2012, the forensic market has been reducing: from about £180m in 2010, to £100m in 2012, and to £60m currently. LGC’s share of that declining market was 20% in 2010, 60% in 2012 and 45% currently. This picture is the result of many factors, including the changing nature of forensics, efficiency and innovation (unit costs have fallen 40% in the last 5yrs, and DNA turnround times have reduced by 75%), and falling general police budgets.
LGC’s forensics work is ISO 17025 accredited [see paragraph 25].
New forensic procurement arrangements, including ‘partnerships’ [see paragraph 19], include good innovations. But they need to provide private sector providers with some certainty about workloads in order to plan infrastructure and staff investment, and opportunities for reward from innovation.
The DNA labs visited by the Committee were the most automated in England, with extensive use of IT-driven sample-handling and tracking, and clean environment control.
Police labs currently undertake the majority of digital forensics work in-house, but have a large backlog of cases. With police labs needing to be accredited by November 2017, LGC is providing advice to police labs to help them gain accreditation.
In the drugs testing lab, while cannabis, cocaine and heroin account for most of the workload, new cases are now arising from the application of the recent Psychoactive Substances Act.

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16 September 2016