Police Forensic Surplus Cut by a Quarter
03 June 2008
The surplus of outstanding forensic work within the Scottish criminal justice system, such as fingerprint identifications, DNA tests and chemical tests, has been reduced by 25 per cent in the last year.
The Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) was launched last year to provide expert policing and support services - including forensics - to the country's eight police forces and criminal justice community.
With SPSA Forensic staff currently supporting a number of police investigations into very serious crimes, SPSA Forensic Services Director Tom Nelson said reducing surplus and unnecessary work was allowing the service to ‘better focus on these kinds of cases where it can really make a difference.'
Working in partnership with Scotland's police forces and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), the new SPSA Forensic Service has worked to prioritise and reduce outstanding work, with an improvement in the numbers of surplus cases from 8,022 in 2006-7 to 6,023 in 2007-8 since becoming a national ‘crime scene to court' service.
Tom Nelson, Director of SPSA Forensic Services said:
"Demand for forensic work across the world increases with every passing year. As techniques become more widely known, and new developments arrive, the pressure on forensic services to deliver results increases.
"Over a number of years this has simply meant that demand for this work has often outstripped supply leading to a surplus of work building up. Bringing forensics together into a national 'crime scene to court' service has allowed us to increase the amount of work done, and remove any unnecessary work that simply didn't require the full forensic analysis originally requested. Why for instance should the taxpayer foot the bill for a forensic analysis that is not required for court?
"In partnership with police forces and the Crown Office this has allowed us to prioritise outstanding work. The murders of two women in Glasgow in recent days have highlighted again the important role that forensic science plays in supporting modern policing. The work done in the last year to reduce surplus and unnecessary work is helping to ensure that forensic science can better focus on these kinds of cases where it can really make a difference."
Other highlights of SPSA performance in its debut year include:
- 99.6% availability of the Criminal History System (CHS) - better than the industry standard and the UK Police National Computer (PNC).
- 1 in 4 calls to Crimestoppers resulting in action by forces and 1 in 17 of these actionable calls resulting in arrests.
- the Scottish Police College delivering 95,000 training days for nearly 7,000 people, and training 150 additional police officers between January and March 2008 to support the Government's drive to increase police numbers
- Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency achieving 170 arrests in total, with 49 of these relating to Level 3 criminality (an improvement of 4 on the previous year).
Chief Executive David Mulhern said:
"By providing increasingly efficient support services on a national basis, SPSA can leave our police forces free to concentrate more resources locally.
"The four business areas of the Scottish Police Services Authority bring with them great history, traditions, and successes from decades of police activity. As a ‘family' of police business we are in the first chapter of our story - but one that has seen significant achievements add to the proud legacy we have inherited.
"SPSA is determined to make a positive difference to the provision of support services to Scottish forces and the criminal justice community as a whole. Every area of our business will be looking to match consolidation of our core services with new initiatives as we strive to raise our overall effectiveness.
"That's a tough challenge but one that will truly demonstrate the value we add to Scottish policing."