The decision to close the Forensic Science Service has sparked a debate about the future of scientific sleuthing in England and Wales. Crime Correspondent Mark Cowan examines some of the possible threats of losing the pioneering organisation.

The Government-owned Forensic Science Service that has pioneered DNA crime fighting technology is on the verge of another breakthrough as it faces the axe over its finances.

It is understood the new technology will help improve the way genetic profiles are obtained from old or degraded samples.

Forensic scientists have remained tight-lipped about the advance, possibly because of its commercial value, but it is thought it could help in examining so-called cold cases, according to union Prospect.

The breakthrough comes as the Forensic Science Service (FSS), which has its headquarters in Solihull, faces being wound up in the next year, a decision that has sparked outrage among scientists and criminologists.

When Crime Prevention Minister James Brokenshire announced last December that it was to wind up the FSS, its case was pure economics, the service was losing £2 million a month and its cash was due to run out within weeks.

Union leaders disputed the losses and said, even if it were accurate, they did not view it as a “loss” but a cost to the criminal justice system of ensuring fairness and impartiality.

To understand the position the FSS finds itself, one must look back into its recent history.

The organisation was, for years, the primary provider of forensic analysis of evidence to police.

In 2005 the FSS was turned into a Government company as part of a move to encourage competition in the market which had a small number of private providers. Critics now argue that the ‘market’ did not develop as first thought. In the past year, it is estimated that the value of the forensics market dropped from £170million to £110million as police forces developed their own in-house expertise and reduced the number of submissions.

But what are the dangers to crime fighting in the UK if the FSS disappears?

There are the obvious job losses, but Prospect union, which represents 1,000 members in the FSS, argues the consequences are more fundamental.

The FSS has been responsible for every leap forward made in DNA crime fighting technology since Sir Alec Jeffreys discovered genetic fingerprinting in 1984.

The FSS pioneered the development and implementation of DNA profiling technologies and developed ways to extract evidence from smaller, older or degraded material, paving the way for the world’s first DNA Database in April 1995.

There are fears that while the private sector will carry out routine analysis that can be charged for, it cannot be relied upon to continue ground-breaking research that would eat into profits.

In its submission to the Science and Technology Select committee, Prospect argued: “If we allow regulation and research to be carried out by business only, there can be no faith in the results due to bias and no research without a guaranteed commercial output.”

Prof Jeffreys, in a letter to New Scientist magazine, added: “Providing access to the best forensic expertise will always be a drain on the public purse.

“Government comments that the FSS is losing money reveal an unimaginative bean-counting mentality and an inability to understand how forensic science progresses.”

Then there are questions of impartiality, with critics expressing it could be eroded because of competing pressures of profit and value for money.

In the US capital Washington DC, there is a plan to take control of the city’s forensics labs away from police and create an independent department – the reverse of what is happening in the UK – with the aim of creating higher standards, fewer errors and more reliable findings.

Politicians argue it is more credible to have police collect evidence and have independent qualified scientists analyse it and testify.

Criminologist Prof David Wilson, from Birmingham City University, said: “It is always a concern when something that isn’t broken is supposedly being fixed.

“The FSS does a fundamental job. I know of very few cases in which a prisoner or offender is claiming a miscarriage of justice on forensic evidence.