United Kingdom and Ireland Association of Forensic Toxicologists: guidelines for forensic toxicology laboratories.

摘要

Quality in Forensic Science has been high on the political agenda in recent years. The Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners (CRFP) was established in 1999 to give the courts a single point of reference on the competence of forensic practitioners. The overriding aim of the CRFP was "to promote public confidence in forensic practice in the UK". The CRFP provided a means by which the casework of forensic practitioners in all disciplines of forensic science was subject to independent peer review on a regular basis. The CRFP peer review process however placed a heavy financial burden on many employers that paid the costs of accreditation for the practitioners they employed and in March 2008 the UK Government decided to disband the CRFP and introduced a new regulatory system to oversee quality in forensic science by appointing a Regulator of Forensic Sciences. The Regulator of Forensic Science is appointed by the Home Secretary and is tasked with ensuring that the provision of forensic science services across the criminal justice system is subject to an appropriate regime of scientific quality standards. In 2010 the Regulator, Andrew Rennison, published the final draft of "Codes of Practice and Conduct for Forensic Providers and Practitioners in the Criminal Justice System" with the objective that when finalised, they will provide a quality standards framework for accreditation to BS/EN ISO 17025. The proposed codes of practice will introduce a single quality standards framework for Forensic Science used in the Criminal Justice System in the UK based on internationally recognised good practice of accreditation.