§ Mr. CrausbyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what quality control systems are in place to ensure the accurate retrieval of fingerprints found at the scene of a crime. [16951]
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§ Mr. DenhamThe training of a fingerprint expert requires that before that person is registered as an expert, he/she must be competent to deal with the process for retrieval of fingerprints from a scene of crime, together with accurate recording of that process. That process includes a requirement to take a Polaroid photograph indicating precisely where the fingerprint has been lifted from and sign across edge of the tape once the fingerprint has been lifted. The essential steps to ensure the probity and continuity of the exhibited fingerprint have been tried and tested within the Criminal Justice System on countless occasions. They meet the high standards of integrity required by our courts.
15 Forces have the ISO9002 Quality Standard for its procedures and have attained that quality standard. The remainder have met an agreed national Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) standard which is audited at least once a year by an independent audit process.
§ Mr. CrausbyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to review the fingerprint service in the United Kingdom. [16952]
§ Mr. DenhamI do not have plans to review the fingerprint service in the United Kingdom. The Association of Chief Police Officers created a Project Group to review the fingerprint evidential standard in 1996. Only after a meticulous programme of work spanning five years, including a comprehensive review of the processes and procedures within all 42 fingerprint bureaux in the 43 Forces in England and Wales, was the evidential standard changed on 11 July 2001.