Report Summary
This report provides members of the Forensic Services Committee with an overview of HMICS Assurance Review of Forensic Toxicology Provision – Improvement Plan and timeline.
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Meeting
The publication discussed was referenced in the meeting below
Forensic Services Committee - 7 August 2025
Date : 07 August 2025
Location : Online
Further Detail on Report Topic
On 13th July 2022, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Scotland (HMICS) published the Terms of Reference for their Assurance Review with the aim to ‘assess the state, efficiency and effectiveness of the arrangements in relation to the processes which are in place for obtaining, analysing and reporting toxicology samples obtained for Section 4 and Section 5A Road Traffic Act 1988 cases’.
HMICS has concluded their detailed Assurance Review and published their report on the findings on 25th April 2023. HMICS made 25 recommendations for improvement.
In response to the publication of the HMICS report, Forensic Services, SPA and Police Scotland developed action plans to address the recommendations where the organisations were the identified Action Leads.
Good progress has been made in terms of Forensic Services, SPA and Police Scotland addressing the recommendations, with 14 recommendations closed by HMICS, to date. This is an increase of two from the previous Committee update on 05 May 2025. Nine recommendations remain live.
Focused activity continues on a number of recommendations linked to the reintroduction of the six-month timeline on 30 November 2024. It is anticipated, following a review of performance, a number of additional recommendations will be submitted for closure by the end of Q2 2025/26.
The appendix provides a summary of updates regarding recommendations since the previous report to the Forensic Services Committee.
