15:28

Following her strongly-worded annual report, the governement’s forensic science regulator, Gill Tully, raised further concerns about the state of the forensic science in an evidence session held by the science and technology select committee this morning.

Tully said that police forces are consistently failing to meet deadlines for bringing their in-house forensics labs in line with basic quality standards. More than half missed an October deadline to gain accreditation to carry out digital forensics work, she said, and at least ten constabularies will miss an accreditation target this October to carry out examination of fingerprints, meaning they’ll have to declare in court that their procedures are not compliant.

Tully warned that many commercial providers, particularly those working in digital forensics, were also disregarding the need for accreditation. She told the committee: