Government publishes response to Committee's Forensic Science Service Report
31 October 2011
The Government today (31 October 2011) published its response to the Science and Technology Committee’s report on the Forensic Science Service.
Commenting on the response, the chair of the committee, Andrew Miller MP, said:
"Although the Minister’s original response to our report was that the Committee had mis-stated a number of significant points, I am pleased to see that the Government has accepted a number of our recommendations, including on the continued operation of the FSS’s archives and ensuring that work is not transferred to unaccredited forensic providers.
"However, it is disappointing that the Home Office has failed to recognise that the decision to close the FSS should not have been taken purely on commercial and legal grounds, but also on scientific grounds.
"The Government says it is confident that the wind-down of the FSS is the right decision. I will be asking the committee to keep a close eye on the transition as I still fear that the forensic science research base and criminal justice system could be jeopardised if the Minister’s optimism is ill founded."