Forensic skills will go forever warns MP - Main Section - Yorkshire Post

Forensic skills will go forever warns MP - Main Section - Yorkshire Post

"A specialist technique used to identify the bombs used in the 7/7 terror attacks will be lost to the UK when the Government closes down its main forensics service, a Yorkshire MP has warned.


Hull North MP Diana Johnson told the Commons that the controversial closure of the national Forensic Science Service (FSS) will mean key scientific expertise will be lost to the country for good.

The FSS is due to be shut down at the end of next month as part of the Coalition Government’s programme of public spending cuts, leading to hundreds of job losses – including the closure of a large laboratory in Wetherby,

The Government plans to farm all forensics work out to the private sector in the future.

But Ms Johnson warned that private firms may not be able to adequately fill the gap.

“I shall highlight one area in which I think we are going to lose a particular technique,” she told MPs.

“It is known as ‘DART-MS’. The technology allows chemicals to be analysed very quickly — indeed, it was used in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings — and substances to be identified within hours instead of days.

“The FSS was the only UK provider able to do that analysis, and no private provider has come forward to pick up the process.”

Ms Johnson also warned of a ‘brain drain’ from the UK’s forensics community as a result of the closure, with under a third of the 147 staff at Wetherby who were expected to transfer over to the private sector actually doing so."