Fears over Forensic Service closure

Go to: Forums > News & Current Affairs: Political

There are 13 postings to this topic on our Member website and this page runs 7 days behind our Member website. For the full topic click to sign up to OUTeverywhere.

A topic from News & Current Affairs: Political

laresSun 12/02/12 21:34

"In a few weeks David Bryant will appear at Newcastle upon Tyne crown court to be sentenced for the kidnapping and indecent assault of four young girls in the 1980s and 1990s. The 65-year-old grandfather – who pleaded guilty in January – can expect a lengthy sentence.

Bringing Bryant to justice, decades after his crimes, was a triumph for the Forensic Science Service. Several techniques pioneered by its researchers at Wetherby, West Yorkshire, helped crack the cases.

But for the service's scientists it will also be a last hurrah. A few weeks after Bryant's sentencing, the Wetherby centre will close and its scientists will be laid off. The service will cease to exist.

"We are being put out to grass," said Dr Jonathan Whitaker, a senior forensic scientist. "We have developed a range of new ways to use DNA to track down criminals. Now we are being closed. The nation will lose that ability to develop new forensic techniques. It is very sad."

The government says the FSS was losing up to £2m a month. By closing it, private and police laboratories could do its work at a lower cost – an idea that has been denounced by Sir Alec Jeffreys, the inventor of DNA profiling. It showed "an unimaginative bean-counting mentality that fails to understand how forensic science progresses," he said. In last week's New Scientist, more than 75% of the 365 forensic scientists who answered a survey about the FSS said they thought its closure would lead to more miscarriages of justice. Staff in the police's "in-house" laboratories would be far more likely to be pressurised into providing results detectives wanted, they warned.

In addition, new forensic techniques would now dry up without the resources that had been provided by the FSS. The service gave researchers time and money to work on novel methods for solving major crimes – with the case of David Bryant providing a perfect example."

http://1sq.me/yVNq7X

A public service? Costing money? Not profitable? Surely not.

Once again the ConDems prove they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. They'll be saying this about the "new" NHS in a couple of years time.

markonseaSun 12/02/12 21:42

"an unimaginative bean-counting mentality"

Can this by Our Government?

Surely not?

laresSun 12/02/12 21:43

quoting > "Can this by Our Government?"

Well, not mine by choice...

There are 10 more postings on this topic on our Member website. For the full topic click to sign up to OUTeverywhere right now.

Enjoy chatting with our members

Click to join and start meeting people today

Imagine joining a social network of people from all around the country and see how you'll feel a year from today. You're increasing your circle of friends. You're doing more of the stuff you enjoy. You're having a great time meeting new people in your area. You're seeing all the benefits of becoming a member of OUTeverywhere. It still feels great making new friends and every day you're hearing more and more about the stuff that everyone's doing. You're joining in. Now, that was easy, wasn't it?

We make meeting people easy. Click to sign up to OUTeverywhere and get up and do something different!

PLEASE NOTE: Events are listed on this website on behalf of organisers in accordance with the Terms of Membership of OUTeverywhere and only if they have chosen broad publicity when adding their event to the Member Events calendar. As such, events are not necessarily affiliated to or endorsed by OUTeverywhere and may not be organised by the person who has listed the event: the person listing this event may simply be attending an event organised by another person or organisation and may wish to meet other people sharing their interest in the event. The mention or appearance of any person or organisation featured on these pages is not to be taken as any indication of sexual, social or political orientation of such persons or organisations. We cannot guarantee that the information is accurate and recommend that you always seek to contact the organiser directly to confirm full details of any event. Under no circumstances will we be responsible for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on, use or misuse of, the information on this website.

Our Vision | Our Team | Privacy Policy | Identity Theft Protection | Terms of Membership

Chat and Meet People

Get access to every profile and loads more pages when you sign up for free to our Member site.

Enter a few key words about what you enjoy, where you live, who you want to meet - search a small sample of OUTeverywhere:

Latest Shout OUT

Broadcast to the gay world with our public Shout OUTs service! Post on our member website or from your mobile phone and raise your profile.

Phil G (deltic) from Oxfordshire in Banbury in United Kingdom shouts OUT: "boo"

Events Calendar

< May 2012 >
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

This Topic's Tags

Members tag topics with key words to help us find similar topics.