UK forensics has gone from “pole position to banana republic” for failing to upgrade its technology in line with Europe, says Alec Jeffreys, the original DNA fingerprinter, in a story in The Times.
According to the newspaper, the UK uses 13-year-old technology to run the national DNA database, having not updated its systems in line with a 2009 European Council resolution that required member states to implement new technology before 30 November 2012. Poland, Slovakia, Greece and Estonia are among the countries that have implemented the new technology.
Jeffreys’s former colleague Peter Gill said, “You can be 100 per cent certain that crimes are not being solved because of this.”