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Forensic Science

: I could not be more grateful to the hon. Gentleman, who, as ever, is right on the ball. I was just coming to that point. He is quite right, because another major source of contention centres around the revelation that 24,000 profiles of 10 to 18-year-olds are stored on the database, despite them never having been cautioned for, charged with or convicted of any offence. Chief constables retain discretionary powers to order the removal of a profile from the database, and I welcome the decision by the Association of Chief Police Officers to issue guidance about when and how discretion should be exercised. However, the Government need to consider the wider public concern about the storage of DNA profiles of innocent juveniles—the very point made by the hon. Member for Lichfield (Michael Fabricant). I hope today that the Minister will assure the House that he intends to rectify that unacceptable situation, and will agree to issue clear guidance to chief constables about the retention of DNA profiles. The proliferation of forensic science degree courses is one of the most intriguing aspects of the Committee's report. A recent visit to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service website, which I undertook this week, showed that for September, I could choose from 445 degree courses with forensic in their title. At London Metropolitan university, I could take forensic science with either sports science or consumer studies. Quite what one does with forensic science and consumer studies, I do not know. Canterbury Christ Church university could offer me a degree in forensic investigation and tourism and leisure studies, or music with forensic investigation. I should not want to suggest, in the words of the right hon. Member for Barking (Margaret Hodge), when she had ministerial responsibilities for higher education, that they are all Mickey Mouse courses. But the massive expansion in forensic science and allied courses has taken place largely without quality control, and the value of some of those courses is, as employers would tell us, dubious to say the least. The clear message that emerged from the evidence taken during the predecessor Committee's inquiry was that employers wanted students with a good grounding in basic science. They prefer to employ chemistry graduates over graduates of forensic science or its more exotic allied degrees. The message is not getting through to students, however. While the number of forensic science students has rocketed during the past five years, the number taking chemistry declined by 27 per cent. between 1994–95 to 2001–02, and by a further 7 per cent. between 2002–03 and 2003–04. It is a matter of huge concern to the Committee, which is about to publish a follow-up report on the strategic science provision in universities, analysing the refocusing of chemistry at the university of Sussex.