Forensic Services Change Programme Update

Our SPA FS National Scene Tasking Unit went live on 3 April 2023, following extensive engagement with internal and external stakeholders to make sure everyone was fully informed in advance.

The Scene Tasking Unit is based in Dundee at our Rushton Court site and is managed by the newly appointed Capability Team Manager. The team are responsible for the review of all scene attendance requests submitted by Police Scotland and the subsequent deployment of scene examiners across Scotland. The End Project Report for the Deployment of Scene Examination is due for submission to the FS Change Programme Board on 18 July 2023.

Operating Model Project

Now that we have clarification on our budget position we are in a position to finalise the implementation planning for our new operating model. Whilst the level of investment required to deliver the operating model in its entirety is not available to us for the forthcoming financial year there are significant steps that can be taken to transition to our new structure.

We will seek to capitalise on the opportunities for efficiency gains already delivered within the change programme through the Access to Lab and Deployment of Scene Examination Projects as well as maximising the positive impact for our people through our new management and capability structure.

We remain committed to making sure that any risk to our service delivery and the impact on our people are mitigated and the phasing of our implementation will reflect that. The project is on track with plan.

Data Governance

The primary aim and priority of this project is to deliver a data governance strategy for relevant electronic data retained by SPA Forensic Services which is compliant with the requirements and timeframes as defined in Data Protection Act of 2018.

We continue to work closely with our partners and information compliance specialists to ensure project deliverables meet both legislative requirements and information compliance standards. The initial business case is now complete and was presented to the Data Governance Project Board in March 2023 and will now progress to the Forensic Services change programme board in July 23.

FS Core Operating System

The Forensic Services Core Operating System (COS) project will ensure that Forensic Services has an improved, fit for purpose core operating system which (a) underpins the successful delivery of the business benefits associated with implementation of our new operating model and (b) addresses the performance impact to arising from business challenges and performance issues with the current system.

The COS solution will have a number of components including Business and ICT requirements, data migration (covered within the Data Migration and Governance Project) and connectivity with existing and new Forensic Services systems and instruments.

The scope of the project will also include a data migration strategy to identify, transfer, or make available to our new core operating system all appropriate legacy data within Forensic Services which can be legitimately retained for lawful purposes.

The business case for COS was presented at the last committee meeting with feedback received from members on the options presented.

Members requested that the options were reviewed to provide further detail on the suitability for Forensic Services use of the new PSoS COS as either a straightforward replacement for our current case management system or the possibility of further development/adaptation of PSoS COS to deliver a fit for purpose product for Forensic Services.

It was agreed that the updated business case would be submitted at the June Meeting of the SPA Resource Committee and shared with Forensic Committee members at that time.

The change programme team have engaged directly with the PSoS COS project team to explore the viability of the approach as requested. FS COS High level requirements have been collated to inform discussions with the PSoS COS provider and a meeting with the supplier company is scheduled for 28 April 2023.

Other Change Activity

Fire Investigation Training Facility:

Forensic Services (FS) staff within our Research Development and Innovation department, have been working with colleagues in the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service (SFRS) and the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science (LRCFS) to establish a training facility for fire investigation. This facility will provide the opportunity to create physical fires scenes where the ground truth of the origin, cause and fire development is known. The business proposal identified the use of converted shipping containers as the most viable option which will be housed on SFRS land at Portlethen and managed through a multi-agency MOU between FS, SFRS and LRCFS

When up and running this facility constitutes a significant increase in the capability of FS and our partners to carry out research, training and maintenance of competencies in Fire Investigation which is a particularly complicated area of work.

Operation Clarus - Building clarity and preventing bias in digital forensic examination, inter-organisational communication and interaction:

Operation Clarus is a multidisciplinary and multi-organisational consortium comprised of 6 academic research organisations; 4 forensic and 3 police agencies (LEAs) from 6 European member states and associated countries.

FS Forensic Leads along with Police Scotland colleagues worked in collaboration with the University of Dundee to secure EU funding to take the project forward and received confirmation earlier this month that the funding application has been successful.

The aim of Operation Clarus is to study how communication, taken-for-granted ways of doing things, organisational cultures, disciplinary backgrounds or even gender and specific languages can contribute significantly to a context for biased judgements and erroneous decisions at an organisational level in digital evidence examination and investigation.