by Tim Alcock, Qualimetric
This presentation is designed to give an executive overview of the Quality Management System standards and guidelines applicable to organisations providing forensic science services to the Criminal Justice System in the UK.
Organisations can achieve independent recognition to these standards via an accreditation process which confirms compliance. This is generally voluntary, but in the UK, whilst not yet mandated in law, the Forensic Science Regulator has required that Forensic units are accredited to relevant International standards (ie ISO/IEC 17025, 17020).
As the standards mentioned above were not specifically written for forensics applications, supplemental documents have also been published (such as ILAC G-19) and in the UK, the FSR Codes criteria of Practice and Conduct and associated documents as well as specific accreditation body requirements. This presentation provides an overview of the application and relationship between these documents.
