Forensic Science TAC Meeting Thursday, 14 th May 2015 Meeting Room G

Transcription

1 Forensic Science TAC Meeting Thursday, 14 th May 2015 Meeting Room G Attendees (KJM) Katherine Monnery (IR) Ian Ronksley (JH) Janice Haines (SW) Sarah Wright (CH) Chris Hurst Minutes (JF) Jim Fraser (CLH) Chanda Lowther-Harris (JA) John Armstrong (VM) Victoria Morton (SG) Siobhan Green (KF) Kirsty Faulkner (GT) Gillian Tully (MVJ) Martyn Jones (JV) Jon Vaughan (JT) Jo Taylor Apologies (PH) Peter Harper (TL) Terry Lowe (PM) Pete Merrill University of Strathclyde (Chair) Metropolitan Police Service Forensic Marketplace Management Team (Home Office) Scottish Police Authority (Forensic Services) PSNI National DNA Delivery Unit (Home Office) Forensic Science Regulator Independent Forensics21 College of Policing Orchid Cellmark (AFSP representative) Hampshire Police (NPCC representative) NCA Minutes 1. Welcome and Introductions Minutes from the previous meeting were discussed. There are two amendments to be made, and then these can be published on the website. 2. Matters Arising Actions from the previous meeting were discussed. Action 1: Completed Action 2: On the agenda and will be covered in the meeting Action 3: Completed 3. Forensic Science Regulator Update GT Since taking on her role in November 2014, she has been meeting with various stakeholders, police forces and public sector FSPs. GT explained her priorities to the meeting: - Supporting the digital community to improve standards with a view to achieve accreditation by Firearms: Defining a clear position, particularly with respect to Kinetic Energy measurement FSTAC (15) 04 Page 1 of 7

2 - Casework audit: An end to end audit looking at crime scenes through to court on a small number of cases. Specifically looking at risks, handovers and decision making. - Working with the CPS: Specifically in relation to case management and the use of the Streamlined Forensic Report (SFR) - Developing standards relating to Interpretation - Working on standards for SARCS and Custody Suites - Progression of the Central Elimination Database (CED) - Performing a study on DNA Mixtures - Annual Pathology Audit - Fingerprint Comparison - Meeting with College of Podiatry GT confirmed her priorities for 2016 will be - Scene of Crime - ISO/IEC for Defence Examiners - Medical Forensics Pilot GT noted that the activities above are what she would like to achieve, however a planning exercise is on-going to determine what is realistic. GT has drafted a risk assessment to be presented at the FSAC and QSG. Digital Awareness Day 200 people attended and it was a really positive day. Some further guidance is needed on the technical scope to be achieved by the accreditation date of October Private Sector and Police Forces attended. KJM noted that there may be some further pre-assessment events later in the year, which will be held in conjunction with the FSR. 4. Committee Member Updates JA The Eastern Region tenders are being reviewed currently. West Midlands region are about to go out to tender in June, with the contracts starting in Feb Biometrics and Forensic Strategy work is on-going, however, it is hoped that a strategy will be in place in December JA Work is on-going to develop a new commercial strategy which will sit under the overarching strategy, this is urgently needed because the current framework most forces use for forensic laboratory services runs out in July KF From a PT scheme perspective, they are continuing the DNA scheme they operate for forensic suppliers to the NDNAD. The PT Scheme for body fluids (BFAI) is at the third round now and they had an ETS visit in April for extending the ISO/IEC to cover this new scheme. The plan is for accreditation to be granted prior to the next round for blood and cellular (buccal and epithelial). FSTAC (15) 04 Page 2 of 7

3 KF The good practice manual has been redrafted, this will be implemented in June 2015, this is for DNA only. KF Update with respect to the Central Elimination Database and the changes to Police Regulations. CLH The refurbishment of Lambeth is nearing completion. Relocations to this site have begun and are expected to be completed by early They hope to maintain accreditation while this is on-going. JT The College of Policing is going through a big restructure. Facilities are becoming more integrated with the wider college. JT is looking at developing a college strategy. She is also involved in reviewing their fingerprint improvement programme. KJM Changes to staff. We have a new assessment manager, Maggie Dawes, who is a forensic scientist with drugs experience. Two assessment managers, Richard Forster and Bonnie Carpenter, have now left. SW Susie Millar left and SW has taken over as Commercial Team Leader. Kulvinder Padda has moved within and Chris Hurst has taken on some of her role. The new website has been slightly delayed but will be live soon and should have better search facilities. KJM We held a forensic TA day in January, where we discussed monitoring our TAs; went through updates on ILAC G19; had some breakout groups for body fluids/dna, toxicology, finger marks. Some good discussions were had about updates to technical areas. The training courses for Fingerprint TA s and SoC ISO/IEC were well received and it was good to see police force attendance with some very positive responses. The SoC course in particular helped to highlight the similarities between ISO/IEC and ISO/IEC KJM attended a meeting of the CEN committee (CEN PC 419) in October The discussion related to whether there was a need for a European Standard despite the fact that there is now the ILAC G19 document. There is another meeting of the CEN group next month where this will be reviewed further. will attend the CEN meeting on behalf of the UK; a UK mirror group will be held prior to the CEN meeting. KJM reported that the UK had been represented at the ISO/TC 272 meeting in Washington progress was made with the new document (ISO18385). The committee also discussed broadening their scope. SG The PSNI review of police service support in Northern Ireland is nearly complete. Work is on-going to house all within one building, this should be completed within a few months SG attended the ENFSI Fingerprint Working Group meeting and is putting the programme together for the September conference focusing on quality. VM The official launch of DNA 24 technology took place in February. In March they had a joint strategy review with the Scottish Institute of Policing Research. Scottish Universities were also asked to attend. They considered development of methods, fingerprint comparisons and decision making within the forensic fields. FSTAC (15) 04 Page 3 of 7

4 From an accreditation perspective fingerprint comparison has been recommended from pending the close of evidence, which is on-going. MVJ Reported he is still working with FAPSA to try and find a pathway to accreditation for small organisations. MVJ is trying to help them and they have completed a gap analysis of some of their organisations which has identified a number of issues. Further work will be undertaken with the Chartered Society. 5. Restructure KJM gave a presentation on the future shape of, highlighting the history and development of and the rationale for restructuring into 3 different service delivery models. KF queried whether there is a potential risk to vision 2020 and getting everything accredited in time, KJM said this is a valid risk that will be monitored however with regard to fingerprint development there is minimal risk. may need to look at recruitment of Assessment Managers as the restructure progresses. CLH asked if the restructure will impact organisations in terms of costs, KJM confirmed that it would not. 6. ILAC- G19:08/2014 Modules in a Forensic Science Process: Update with respect to latest situation and any issues noted with implementation KJM confirmed has started assessing against the new 2014 version and have asked accredited organisations to supply a gap analysis prior to assessment. is keeping a log of progress with visits and so far things are progressing well. There was a meeting of the ILAC Accreditation Issues Committee, which is responsible for the document. No issues were raised in relation to the implementation of the revised ILAC G Protection of Freedoms Act Impact of the Act and how this will be reviewed in relation to FSPs KF The legislation changed in 2012, with respect to the retention of samples and records, specific timescales were stipulated for England and Wales. The retention depends on conviction status, the offence that the sample was taken for and the age of the subject arrested. The change was required for DNA and fingerprints. have conducted some scoping visits to some FSPs to see how assurance can be gained relating to compliance with the requirements of PoFA. The visits reviewed a number of areas including sample destruction, as in 2013 more than 1.7 million physical samples were destroyed as part of PoFA project. And 1.3 million records were destroyed from the DNA database. A scoping study was conducted and reported back to the Biometrics Commissioner with a view to reporting back to the DNA strategy board. Overall, all forensic providers had responded well to the new legislation. and the NDNADU are looking to extend the current Lab 32 structure for to assess on behalf of the database, with the NDNADU supplying some Technical Assessors. FSTAC (15) 04 Page 4 of 7

5 8. Fingerprint Comparison Update with respect to recent assessments and Technical Assessors KJM has conducted assessments for fingerprint comparison, these are the first for some time, although we have previously accredited this. It went well with some issues, as expected e.g. Validation and on-going QC. The assessments demonstrated that ISO/IEC was the correct standard for this work. has a pre-assessment coming up for a police force customer. It is positive to get police forces started on this route. It will be interesting to see how bureaus work in a police force environment and note any differences in practice with non-police force customers. is going to run some pre-assessment days with the FSR 12 th June (Wakefield) and 22 nd June (New Scotland Yard). Invites have gone out for these. There are 5 new technical assessors for this area and a specific TA workshop will be set up in July. There is some discussion as to whether we have a Lab style document (similar to RG201) where we can define more clearly our expectations and define things that need to be in place. 9. Accreditation of Digital Activities Update with respect to recent assessments and Technical Assessors KJM The FSR and has had some very positive digital days really going into detail about the steps they need to take and there is some real momentum at the moment. has interviewed about 15 TA s and 9 will be taken forward. We will run a specific training course in September. Further discussion with respect to scopes and what will be able to be accredited is on-going with stakeholders. The accreditation of Cellsite will be taken forward through a pilot; but there is a discussion around whether it falls within ISO/IEC or ISO/IEC The NPCC Digital Portfolio Group has done some excellent work. Toolkits are going to be available to attempt to smooth out the applications and forces are being assigned in to waves with respect to applying for accreditation. This isn t an entirely new area for, this is just new to police forces; has accredited FSPs for a variety of digital tests for many years. GT DCC Nick Baker, who heads up the NPCC portfolio group, has made a huge difference in the community heading up the portfolio and achieving a lot in a small space of time. 10. Overview of CAST and their work Presentation on the work of CAST relevant to the committee JV gave a presentation on his role and organisation. The organisation reports into Director of Science Engineering and Technology at Home Office. They are a team of specialists using science and technology to deliver Home Office priorities such as cutting crime, preventing terrorism, promoting growth, etc. They are based in 2 main sites at Sandridge and Langhurst, employing approximately 250 staff. They have various senior experts with specialist skills in many niche forensic areas. FSTAC (15) 04 Page 5 of 7

6 CAST are involved with: - Contraband detection - Crime prevention - Community safety - Digital investigation (which doesn t sit within forensics, includes things such as CCTV analysis) - Forensics - Identity Assurance - Protective security (barrier controls, working with prison service regarding devices in prisons) - Public order (body armour) - surveillance (audio visual equipment) CAST Forensic Activity: - Fingerprint Source Book - Validation work - Fingerprint Visualisation Manual - Digital imaging - Drug identification - Live time forensics - Quality standards - Rapid DNA CAST engage with lots of other Government departments and industry, academia, etc. They have a dedicated Horizon scan team that draws upon information from these other groups vision Discussion on benefits / risks for each area IR Aspects of this have been covered throughout the day. The risks paper was put together to read alongside the roadmap of how the 2020 vision could be realised, it was very much informed by comments from this meeting/group. It has not been updated since September 2014 so things have moved on. Some risks remain current, some have gone. New risks include the restructuring which could have an impact on the realisation of the 2020 vision, and potentially CEN. KJM highlighted the difficulty with timescales when there are elements outside of control such as when organisations apply for accreditation. GT A date five years into the future can be quite dangerous and perhaps some more milestones should be added. Her priority is moving things along as quickly as possible and avoiding the possibility of large numbers of organisations seeking accreditation at the same time. 12. AOB Government Chief Science Advisor we note that a meeting took place and we wait to see the outcome of this meeting. 13. Date of next meeting The next meeting will be held on 18 th November Meeting closed. FSTAC (15) 04 Page 6 of 7