News
SmartWater marks anniversary achieving Regulator’s ‘gold standard’
September 2020 by Marc Jacob
Award-winning forensic marking company, SmartWater Technology, a division of the SmartWater Group, is set to celebrate its third anniversary complying with the ‘gold standard’ of forensic science.
The Government’s Forensic Science Regulators’ (FSR) Codes of Practice are designed to protect the Courts from substandard forensic evidence, requiring suppliers of forensic products and services to the police to adhere to stringent international standards, with compliance independently assessed by national certification bodies.
Currently, the police are required to inform the Court if forensic evidence they rely upon is compliant with the Codes, with the risk of having non-compliant forensic evidence being ruled inadmissible. This is deemed to be so important to the justice system that the Government is in the process of making compliance a legal requirement.
SmartWater’s compliance was independently assessed by UKAS three years ago, which has helped to build on a conviction rate that has already seen thousands of criminals jailed.
The formation of the Government’s Forensic Science Regulator followed the closure of the Home Office Forensic Science Service in 2012. Since then, police have had to rely on the private sector to provide a range of forensic support services, from DNA Analysis to computer and mobile diagnostics.
However, because of abuse by some companies which led to miscarriages of justice, since October 2017 it has been a requirement that most categories of forensic science, including laboratory analysis of forensic marking products, is compliant with the FSR’s Codes of Practice.
