Report Summary
This report provides members of the Forensic Services Committee with an overview of the Project Weaver Closure Report.
Meeting
The publication discussed was referenced in the meeting below
Forensics Services Committee - 4 May 2023
Date : 04 May 2023
Location : online
Background
In 2019 and 2020 there were extensive well-publicised delays to the Post Mortem Toxicology service beyond the five-week target due to a lack of resource, strategy and long-term future plans. These led to critical media headlines, complaints from families, questions in the Scottish Parliament and delays in the reporting of the drug-death statistics.
The purpose of Project Weaver was to transition Post Mortem Toxicology services from the University of Glasgow to Forensic Services and embed the transitioned service as a Scottish Government fully-funded and integrated business-as-usual function.
The benefits of the integration of Post Mortem Toxicology with Forensic Services enables:
A holistic forensic response to Police Scotland and COPFS;
Real-time integrated intelligence;
A single point of co-ordination to support drugs
deaths initiatives;
Enhanced career opportunities for existing and
transferring staff.