Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government has taken as a result of the recommendation made in the Hutton review of forensic pathology in England and Wales, submitted to the Minister of State for Crime and Prevention in March 2015, that as a temporary measure to ensure that sensitive material (such as notes, photographs and copy statements) from forensic autopsies are kept in secure locations, and all unused material should be stored with the police file as is normally the case with all other unused material.

This recommendation was initially considered as part of the review of the Forensic Archive Ltd. This review has now been published and recommended not to provide a central secure store for forensic pathology case material. The Home Office has taken steps to include changes into the next revision of the Forensic Science Regulator’s Codes of Practice and Performance Standards publication in line with the Hutton recommendation.