Response

Are you able to please confirm whether the human blood on the knife was matched to any individual? (no personal details/name is requested)

As was reported in the Forensic Court report at the time, the human blood on the knife was matched to the accused.

Regarding a response to your second question.

Are you able to please confirm whether the blood on the knife matched to any samples taken from the crime scene?

To provide you with the information requested would prove too costly within the context of the fee regulations. The current cost threshold is £600. We estimate that it would cost more than this amount to locate, retrieve and provide the information sought.

The Authority has assessed that the £600 cost limit within the Act equates to 40 hours of work and so your request would exceed the cost threshold .

To explain, Forensic Services was established in 2013. This was after the case in question. This case was legacy Lothian and Borders Police. Given this is an historic case there will be a requirement for case records from legacy Lothian & Borders Police and Tayside Forensic laboratory records requiring.

• search and source from physical archive store which is offsite. This would require significant review of casefiles to be pulled from archive, which would then require Chain of Custody and transportation to Forensic Services laboratory for review.

• search and source from archived legacy IT systems which would require scientific specialist to manually evaluate/review as the records are from a legacy force/laboratory therefore format and content may vary or require additional time to access.

By way of assistance, all the examinations and results from items recovered from the crime scene are as detailed in the Forensic Court Reports.

Information may be available by contacting COPFS at FOI@copfs.gov.uk and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service at foi@scotcourts.gov.uk