FSS closure may jeopardise serious crime trials, warn Met chiefs

Senior police tell the CPS that crucial expert witnesses from the Forensic Science Service could be lost to the courts Serious crime trials, including those for murder and sexual assault, may be jeopardised or delayed as hundreds of compulsory redundancies at the Forensic Science Service (FSS) take their toll on the justice system. Senior figures from the Metropolitan police have warned the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that crucial expert witnesses from the forensics service could be lost to the courts if they move into unrelated careers or go abroad after losing their jobs. Police chiefs are most concerned about the impact on serious and complex cases that rest on many months of painstaking forensics work, but which will not reach the courts before March next year when the FSS closes for business. Some trials may even collapse if expert witnesses are unavailable. This could happen in cases where evidence is destroyed by chemical tests, or when toxicology tests cannot be repeated, making the forensics specialist’s account a crucial part of the trial. The home secretary, Theresa May, announced the closure of the government-owned FSS last December , citing losses of £2m a month. The FSS has since cut its operating losses, but will stop taking fresh cases at the start of October, leaving private forensics companies to shoulder an extra 120,000 cases a year. Prosecutors often draw heavily on expert testimonies from forensics specialists who have personally examined evidence collected in police investigations. The closure of the FSS means some specialists may simply be unavailable or impossible to trace for court appearances. The FSS has already closed three sites, in Chorley, Chepstow and Birmingham, with the loss of more than 600 staff. The organisation estimates that 90% of those who were made redundant left the forensics profession completely, even when private companies nearby were recruiting. Another 1,200 staff will be made redundant before March. While forensic case files are occasionally handed over in criminal trials, for example, if the investigating scientist dies or leaves the country, specialists who take on fresh cases must review the material independently, a process that can cause severe delays when large volumes of complex evidence are involved. In some instances, private forensics firms and police force labs might not have staff who hold the required accreditation. “If a trial comes to court in June or July, we need the scientist and their case file to be available. But once they have left the Forensic Science Service, they are under no obligation whatsoever,” said Gary Pugh, director of forensics services at New Scotland Yard. “We have flagged up to the CPS that if there are key scientists on a case, we need to keep an eye on those specialists. If we can’t get them, we need to make sure someone else can give the evidence,” Pugh added. The CPS could face further difficulties even when former FSS specialists are available for court duties. If a scientist has not been working in forensics for many months, a jury could question their credibility, and in some cases, their accreditation might lapse. The Met already employs private forensics companies, including LGC Forensics in Middlesex and Orchid Cellmark in Oxfordshire, both of which will take on work previously handled by the FSS. Over the course of the coming year, the Met expects private contractors to take on an extra 1,500 serious violent crimes, 1,500 cases of rape and sexually motivated crime, and 300 suspicious death investigations. Many of the cases the FSS is working on now will go to trial before the March closure date, but a minority will take longer to reach the courts. “They will be the complex cases,” said Pugh, with evidence brought together from different sources and often multiple scenes. The CPS said the availability of former FSS specialists for court duties was a concern, as was the possible need to agree fees with scientists to give evidence. Another worry for the CPS is that former FSS scientists might set up in practice and provide forensics services to defence lawyers, which could, according to its submission to the science and technology committee’s inquiry, “jeopardise efficient and effective disposal of cases”. The CPS is worried that disgruntled former FSS scientists might share confidential information from cases they have worked on with defence lawyers in other cases. Speaking on the availability of former FSS staff, a CPS spokesperson said: “The CPS has highlighted this important element of the FSS closure to the Home Office FSS transition board, which has responsibility for ensuring an effective closure of the FSS. The CPS has been assured that steps have been taken to minimise any possible disruption to trials taking place after the scheduled closure of the Forensic Science Service in March 2012. “We understand that all companies that employ former FSS staff will be contractually obligated to make those staff available to give evidence in future trials. Procedures are being put in place so that employees can be asked to give evidence if required whether they continue working in the forensics industry or not.” The CPS said it raised concerns over the risk of former FSS scientists providing expertise to defendants “to highlight the importance of securing appropriate departure agreements with FSS staff that could ensure confidentiality and future access to relevant people and materials. The aim was to ensure effective working in the future.” Allan Jamieson at the Forensic Institute said the Met was right to raise concerns over forensics specialists being unavailable for court duties once they leave the FSS. “The chances of this happening increase as more people change jobs, and in these circumstances they are obviously doing that. In old cases, when there is no scientist, the work may have to be redone,” Jamieson said. “If the evidence has gone, if it was destroyed by tests or decayed over time, and you’ve lost the scientist, you might lose the case too, because there’s no one around to give evidence. This may well be an interim cost of the transition from a world with the FSS to a world without.” Forensic science Metropolitan police Crime Police London Theresa May UK criminal justice Ian Sample guardian.co.uk

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