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The Forensic Science Regulator’s Consultation
This consultation is now closed. You can now read the UK Register of Expert Witnesses submission.
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(144kb)
On 15 January 2009 the Forensic Science Regulator, Andrew Rennison, published a consultation paper looking at the future of forensic practitioner registration in the criminal justice system (CJS). It proposes sweeping rationalisation of the current arrangements. In place of the hodge-podge of current systems, which are based on various criteria testing different aspects of forensic practice assessed against a multitude of standards, the Regulator is recommending a single accreditation system operated by the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS) based on internationally recognised ISO standards.
These changes would both sweep away the troubled quango the Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners (CRFP), and widen the scope of the accreditation to encompass:
- the companies providing forensic services to the CJS
- their personnel and, crucially,
- the methods they use.
Instead of maintaining a specific ‘register’ of forensic practitioners, the existing UKAS database would become the place to check out the status of a given forensic provider.
Scope of the consultation
This consultation is focusing on scientific evidence used in the criminal justice system. However, the Regulator has flagged up his view that whatever results from this process could apply equally to scientific evidence used in the civil and family courts. So, whichever court(s) you currently work in, you may like to take this opportunity to influence the development of a policy that could well be visited upon your area of work at some point in the future.
Understanding the issues
The Consultation Paper is 55 pages long, and has as many pages again in detailed appendices. We have prepared a number of resources to help you get to grips with the Consultation Paper, and to enable you to respond.
To understand what the Consultation Paper is about, you can:
To respond, you can:
- quickly lend your support to, or record your rejection of, the views contained in our initial response through our on-line voting system Vote now...
- use our on-line system to respond to the specific issues raised by the Consultation Paper take me there...
- send us your written response tell me how...
- send your written response direct to the Forensic Science Regulator. tell me how...
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