A lack of accreditation of expert witnesses means that anyone with a scientific background and sufficient ‘brass neck’ could set themselves up as a forensic science expert and mislead the court, a Court of Appeal judge has warned.

Lord Justice Leveson told the Forensic Science Society last week that an increase in accreditation for forensic experts would be ‘hugely desirable’.

He said: ‘In the United Kingdom there has traditionally been no system of accreditation or regulation of forensic scientists.

‘The dangers of this lacuna are obvious; theoretically, anyone with any sort of scientific background and sufficient personal confidence, perhaps less politely described as brass neck, or who was sufficiently misguided, could set themselves up as a forensic science expert and produce evidence that, at best, is unhelpful and, at worst, positively misleading; nobody would necessarily be the wiser.’

Leveson added that a Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners (CRFP) was established with Home Office support in 1997 as an independent regulatory body to promote public confidence in forensic practice, but later ceased trading due to lack of government funding.

The judge said that under the CRFP, accreditation was based on peer review of forensic practitioners. Experts had to obtain separate accreditation for each field of expertise in which they wished to practise, and had to specify precisely what they were accredited in, renew their accreditation every four years, and abide by a strict code of practice or face expulsion from the register.

He added: ‘In my view, be it the CRFP or some other body, this is precisely the sort of regulation and accreditation which we are currently lacking.

‘It ought to be established, and similar bodies created for all experts, albeit that some other system might be required for particularly esoteric and not often used expertise.’

Leveson added: ‘A failure to take this type of step risks not just miscarriages of justice, but the very reputation of the professions themselves.’

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