On Tuesday 11th December the House of Lords Science and Technology
Select Committee will continue taking evidence for its inquiry into
the UK’s use of forensic science and its contribution to the
delivery of justice.
This week’s session will focus on
standards and accreditation in forensic science and whether the
current standards used across laboratories are appropriate for
the interpretation of forensic
evidence.
The Session will begin at 3:25pm
in Committee Room 4A of the House of Lords. Giving evidence will
be:
-
Lorraine
Turner, Business
Development and Technical Director, United Kingdom
Accreditation Service (UKAS)
-
Katherine
Monnery, Forensic
Accreditation Specialist,
UKAS;
-
Sara
Walton, Governance
and Resilience Market Development Manager, British Standards
Institution (BSI)
-
Steve
Brunige, Head
of Industry and Government Engagement,
BSI
Questions the Committee are
likely to ask include:
-
How closely do you work with the Forensic
Science Regulator in setting standards and awarding
accreditation?
-
Would there be benefit in developing
standards especially for Forensic
Science?
-
In written evidence we’ve heard that
compliance with the ISO standards amongst some disciplines is
currently quite low (such as fingerprints and digital forensic
science). Why do you think this is?
-
How do you account for the importance of
experience and expertise that is necessary at every stage of
the forensic process (crime scene, lab and court) as well as
enforcing strong procedural standards for the analysis of
specimens?
