In these times of public spending cutbacks, it is particularly interesting how a Government can seemingly put a value on something as important as forensic science where its financial costs are, I believe, in inverse proportion to its importance to justice.
The post of Forensic Regulator was set-up nearly ten years to ensure “that the provision of forensic science services across the criminal justice system is subject to an appropriate regime of scientific quality standards.”
More crucially, that “forensic science services are delivered to appropriate standards (usually an international standard) tailored to meet the needs of the criminal justice system and subject to independent and effective assessments of quality.”
It’s therefore of serious concern that there is speculation that the Government is (or already has) made the position of Regulator a part-time one. Despite Home Office denials about that being the situation (ore even a possibility) it does seem that the role is changing.
It may be that the current incumbent, Dr Gillian Tully, is focussing on how police forces better manage forensic science given that considerably more work is now done, perhaps worryingly, “in-house” but the bigger picture of forensic provision across the whole system is being ignored.
