Katy Thorne KC appointed as a Commissioner for the Westminster Commission on Forensic Science

“Our reputation as the global gold standard for forensic sciences has been badly tarnished over the last decade. Today we launch an investigation into the state of the sector and we do that as a result of our concern that the innocent are being wrongly convicted,” comments Barry Sheerman MP, co-chair of the APPGMJ. “The Westminster Commission on Forensic Science will shine a light on the sector and how its ‘products’ are used, and make recommendations to drive up quality and reliability in this important but overlooked corner of the justice system.”

“Over the last five years since we started our work, we have heard from lawyers specialising in criminal appeals as well as families about their concerns about the role of forensics leading to wrongful convictions and enabling the real criminals to escape scot-free,” comments Sir Bob Neill MP, co-chair of the APPGMJ. “We have also noted with increasing alarm the consistent warnings both from forensic scientists themselves and the Forensic Science Regulator which have gone unheeded. At the heart of many of the notorious miscarriage of justice scandals in the past - from the Irish cases, such as the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four, to Barry George and Shaun Hodgson - is the issue of forensics. The misapplication of forensic science can and often has resulted in the wrongful conviction for many years of the innocent. But pioneering forensic approaches can lead to wrongful convictions being overturned and justice restored.”

Angela Gallop further explained: “Forensic science has now become so powerful that you don’t need to be able to see a trace of potentially relevant material to get a result from it. This means that it is increasingly important to ensure that the right tests are applied by properly trained scientists to the right items, and the results are carefully interpreted in the context of the specific case at hand. If any of this doesn’t happen, then forensic science will not only fail to prevent miscarriages of justice but is likely actively to contribute to them. Along with many other forensic scientists I am sure this is happening already. The new Westminster Commission will therefore explore all aspects of forensic science and its role in the Criminal Justice System, and identify imaginative, timely, and cost-effective ways of avoiding the serious risks to fairness and justice currently associated with its use.”