Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of the impact of the standard of forensic science available to police officers on prosecution rates.

The Home Office has made no direct assessment of its own, but we have worked with the National Police Chief’s Council and the Forensic Science Regulator to monitor the accreditation rates of forensic science providers.

The government also put the Forensic Science Regulator on a statutory footing through the Forensic Science Regulator Act (2021) and he has the necessary powers to enforce quality standards.