---

Forensic Science Service

What concerns me about what the Minister says is that some of these costs are going to be borne by the public purse for some considerable time. Contrary to what was said earlier, the Crown Prosecution Service was not 100% happy with the situation. What it said was:"““None of the suppliers are…accredited in all forensic disciplines, and thus can only take on a limited range of forensic work””—" until, of course, they are accredited. The CPS went on to say:"““Gaining accreditation in these fields is a time consuming and potentially expensive process and the appetite of the suppliers””—" including the police—"““to undertake this exercise is not yet known.””" The regulators are going to have to make that happen. The point I am making to the Minister is that we need to keep an eye on those burgeoning costs, including in police forces, because we do not want money spent on this that could otherwise have been spent on front-line policing.