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There is a serious mismatch between the government’s aim to commercialise forensic science and the requirement of courts for openness, according to a top forensic expert.

Peter Gill told the BBC that UK courts would not accept forensic tests whose details are kept secret due to commercial confidentiality issues.

He said this would prevent proper scrutiny of forensic techniques.

Professor Gill also warned the National DNA Database needed upgrades urgently.

And that without them, the UK resource would fall behind comparable systems used in other countries.

Late last year, the government said the Forensic Science Service would be wound up, adding that as many of its operations as possible were to be transferred or sold off.

The Home Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) agreed to set up a working group to ensure a “smooth transition” as the Forensic Science Service (FSS) was wound down.

Now based at the University of Oslo, Norway, Peter Gill helped develop the DNA fingerprinting technique used widely by crime scene investigators – along with Sir Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester.

“Courts will not accept secret tests that have not been subject to rigorous peer review and challenge,” Professor Gill has said in his submission to the House of Commons science committee’s inquiry into the closure of the Forensic Science Service (FSS).

“The public will not accept sub-standard tests being used in any laboratory.”

He added: “An exploratory framework is needed to discover whether laboratories are providing sub-standard results.”

Professor Gill cited one recent court case where the judge criticised the FSS for using an internally developed “commercial in confidence” database.

“This case… demonstrates that a serious mismatch exists between the government’s aspiration to privatise forensic science, versus the court requirement for openness, disclosure, and scientific peer review,” said Professor Gill.

“It is easily demonstrated, therefore, that the framework to utilise forensic science in the UK, where the market is entirely privatised, is already fatally flawed.”

The FSS analyses evidence from crime scenes in England and Wales, but has been losing about £2m a month.

It employed 1,600 people and handled more than 120,000 cases each year.

“The NPIA, ACPO and Home Office will continue to work with the Forensic Science Service to ensure that transition arrangements are in place to manage the wind-down of their forensic services,” said a joint statement from ACPO and the NPIA.

The government wants private enterprise, which currently makes up 40% of the market, to fill the gap left behind by the FSS.

However, many experts are sceptical that this can work and point out that the UK’s private forensics sector is shrinking.

There are also concerns that an over-emphasis on profits could threaten the quality of science.

At the time of the government’s announcement, Crime Reduction Minister James Brokenshire said private sector competition for police contracts was enabling forces to achieve greater efficiency.

He said that the Forensic Science Regulator should ensure that quality standards are maintained.

Professor Gill said the UK’s National DNA Database was already out of date, and in urgent need of upgrades to bring it in line with standards rapidly being adopted elsewhere in the European Union.

He said there was no timescale or coherent strategy for the adoption of these standards in the UK.

“Being locked in the past, the inevitable consequence is that casework is carried out with less efficiency than would otherwise be the case elsewhere in the EU. Cases will effectively be ‘lost’ – i.e. they will fail to provide probative results in laboratories not equipped with the latest technology,” said Peter Gill.

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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Until now, how species such as loggerhead sea turtles manage to migrate thousands of miles across oceans with no visual landmarks has been a mystery.

Now researchers from the University of North Carolina believe they have found the answer.

Loggerhead sea turtles appear to be able to determine their longitude using two sets of magnetic cues.

It is the first time this ability has been shown in any migratory animal.

This research is published in the journal Current Biology.

Although several species of turtles are known to use magnetic cues to determine latitude, it was believed that this wasn’t possible for longitude.

However, the loggerhead turtles have managed to surprise researchers by developing a method that involves using the strength and angle of the Earth’s magnetic field.

Nathan Putman, the lead author of the research emphasised that “the most difficult part of open-sea navigation is determining longitude or east-west position”.

“It took human navigators centuries to figure out how to determine longitude on their long-distance voyages”.

Loggerhead hatchlings, however, are able to mange this feat as soon as they reach the sea from their nests.

On reaching the sea, the hatchlings are able to establish the correct course to the open ocean.

The young loggerheads then spend several years successfully navigating complex migratory routes over thousands of miles of ocean.

To carry out the research loggerhead hatchlings from Florida were placed in circular water containers and tethered to electronic tracking systems to monitor their swimming direction.

The hatchlings were then exposed to magnetic fields which replicated the fields they would come across in two locations on the same latitude but different longitude along their migratory route.

The turtles reacted to each magnetic field by swimming in the directions that would, in the real location, take them along their circular migratory route.

The researchers say this shows that the hatchlings are able to determine longitude using information from the magnetic field.

Nathan Putman explains that “along the migratory route of loggerheads, nearly all regions are marked by unique combinations of intensity (field strength) and inclination angle (the angle that field lines intersect the surface of the Earth)”.

“Thus, turtles can determine longitudinal position by using pairings of intensity and inclination angle as an X, Y coordinate system”.

Dr Kenneth Lohmann, director of the laboratory where this research was carried out, said the research “not only solves a long-standing mystery of animal behaviour but may also be useful in sea turtle conservation”.

The research might even have a role to play in the development of human navigational technologies, according to Nathan Putman.

“There may be situations where satellite might not be available, where this system of using two aspects of a magnetic field could be very useful”.

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How have new media and a vigorous political culture helped create and shape the revolutions in the Middle East?

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The space shuttle Discovery has launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the US for the last time.

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British citizens returning from Libya, are telling how they feared for their lives as the country spirals out of control.

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UK households are to be asked how satisfied they are with their lives in survey measuring happiness.

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American International Group (AIG), the troubled giant US insurer, has said it earned $11.18bn (£6.93bn) in the fourth quarter, compared with a year-earlier loss of $8.87bn.

But taking out gains from asset sales it lost $2.21bn on an operating basis, from a $1.34bn loss a year previously.

It also said it was to look at a further sale of its shares this year.

The Treasury currently owns 92% of AIG, after stepping in to bail out the firm and prevent its collapse in 2008.

The total bail-out package has amounted to $182bn.

“We completed several key restructuring milestones in the quarter,” AIG’s chief executive, Robert Benmosche, said in a statement.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.