The stark assessment by Professor Angela Gallop has been reinforced today by the House of Lords’ science and technology committee in a report that found “little to contradict it”.

The committee’s report, Rebuilding forensic science for criminal justice: an urgent need, reveals a forensic science system in crisis: a near‑monopolised, dysfunctional and fragile commercial market; inconsistent and poorly overseen in‑house police provision; and a digital forensics backlog exceeding 20,000 devices that has barely improved for years.

The committee is calling on the UK government to act immediately rather than wait for the outcome of “long and uncertain changes” recently announced in the Policing Reform White Paper.

It recommends the creation this year of a National Institute for Forensic Science to oversee best practice, drive research and development, and the preservation of specialist forensic skills and to help ensure the independence of forensic evidence and prevent miscarriages of justice.

Committee chair Lord Mair CBE said: “As the forensic science system continues to atrophy despite repeated warnings, creeping neglect is beginning to resemble a shocking abdication of responsibility by the government, and is a national scandal in the making. If this decline is allowed to continue, further miscarriages of justice are inevitable.

“We welcome the direction of travel in the recently announced policing reform white paper, which presents opportunities for change such as establishing a national forensic science service and rationalising the current complex patchwork of police forces.

“However, the details on how forensic science will operate within this new system, and critically, how its independence from the police will be safeguarded, remain extremely vague, as do the timelines for implementing these changes.

“These much-needed and long overdue reforms must not be allowed to be kicked into the long grass.

“The need urgently to address the issues our inquiry has identified within the forensic system, both now and as part of these wider reforms, is critical if we are to fix and rebuild what has become an increasingly dysfunctional pillar of criminal justice in England and Wales.”