Service level agreement with forensic science providers
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.023182
I note you seek access to the following information:
I kindly require the following information:
1. With regards to your service level agreement with your forensic science providers, what number of DNA profiling cases are not meeting your service level of agreement in terms of turnaround time? Please provide separate figures for 2019, 2020 and 2021.
If it is not possible to provide all the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please omit the year 2019 from the request.
Decision
I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.
Please find below information pursuant to your request above.
DNA profiling may cover a range of DNA activities from PACE samples (from individuals) through to DNA on items and at crime scenes. We use different codes relevant to the type of activity in respect of the DNA as well as different codes to show how the DNA was recovered.
Please note:
Turnaround times have evolved during the course of the contract and therefore reporting is against the turnaround time in place at the time of recording.
2019 includes partial data due to a cyber-attack on the supplier managing DNA during June 2019. This has impacted the data used to measure performance following June 2019 until the services resumed fully in August 2019.
2020 and 2021 have been impacted by COVID affecting both the availability of personnel due to ill health as well as slowing down analysis due to safe methods of working to allow space to personnel working in labs.
Most codes cover multiple processing activities (i.e. DN002 will compare reference samples and casework to crime scene stains). The most dominant types of DNA samples (codes) are shown in the table below with the higher volume type shown first.
Whilst data shows volumes not completed within their TRT (turnaround time) all samples submitted will be processed.
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | ||||
| Code type and dominant category type. | Failure vol. (outside TRT) | % of total volume outside of TRT | Failure vol. (outside TRT) | % of total volume outside of TRT | Failure vol. (outside TRT) |
% of total volume outside of TRT |
| DN001 - DNA Processing (Cat 2 & 3) | 4446 | 11% | 12037 | 31% | 22349 | 59% |
| DN002 - DNA comparison and confirmation (Cat 3 & 2) | 2317 | 8% | 5612 | 18% | 6849 | 19% |
| DN003 - Reference DNA Comparison (Cat 1) | 1207 | 2% | 1251 | 3% | 1769 | 4% |
| DN004 - Specialist DNA(Cat 3) | 11 | 4% | 3 | 1% | 10 | 4% |
Key
Cat 1 - DNA Category 1: Reference sample submissions. These include all DNA samples taken from detainees in Custody Suites upon arrest and within other Police powers. This category also includes the Police Elimination Database (PED) samples; including samples that require biometric vetting, and elimination samples for inclusion to the relevant databases (vulnerable persons/ Staff Elimination samples).
Cat 2 - DNA Category 2: Crime Scene Stain submissions. These include all DNA submission taken directly from Crime scenes, which purely require DNA profiling and loading to the National DNA database (NDNAD).
Cat 3 - DNA Category 3: Casework DNA submissions. These samples are retrieved from exhibits forensic exhibits / scenes by the Authority’s personnel (scientists).
TRT – turnaround time (work completed within a set period of days or hours).