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FSIGSS 1160 No. of Pages 2

Forensic Science International: Genetics Supplement Series xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Forensic Science International: Genetics Supplement Series

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/FSIGSS

Accreditation of forensic laboratories as a part of the “European

Forensic Science 2020” concept in countries of the Visegrad Group
Zsolt Pádár* , Mónika Nogel, Gábor Kovács
Research Centre for Forensic Sciences and Criminology, Széchenyi István University, GyÅr, Hungary

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: Globalising, cross-border crime has led EU Member States to improve methods of fighting crime on an
Received 1 September 2015 international level as well as to increase the mutual recognition of collecting and analysing evidence by
Accepted 21 September 2015 one another. In the interest of the regulated and scheduled implementation of the harmonization
Available online xxx
process, the Council of the EU made a decision of The Vision for European Forensic Science 2020 including
the creation of a European Forensic Science Area and the development of forensic science infrastructure
Keywords: in Europe [EFSA 2020] to ensure the equivalence of professional forensic examinations. The collection,
EFSA 2020
processing, use and delivery of forensic data will be based on equivalent minimum forensic science
Forensic area
Accreditation of forensic laboratories
standards, and forensic service providers will work on the basis of a common approach to implement
Visegrad Group these standards that foster closer cooperation between them and criminal justice systems. The
DNA laboratories accreditation of forensic laboratories is a corner stone of the above mentioned objectives [1–3]. Ensuring
Quality assurance the integrity of DNA profiles the Council issued decision 2008/616/JHA the application of EN ISO/IEC
Standards 17025 standard regarding the operation of testing and calibration laboratories has been ordered [4].
According to Council Framework Decision 2009/905/JHA on the accreditation of judicial expert
laboratories, the laboratories have to be accredited until 30th November 2015 [5]. We investigated the
regulations, decisions and rules national and international measures of the given area.
ã 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction 2. Material studied, methods

With the accession of the Visegrad Group to the Schengen zone
board inspection was terminated which also had negative effects,
as criminals’ crossing of boarders became easier, as well. In order to
make the prevention and discovery of crimes crossing boarders
more effective, the closest possible criminal cooperation is
necessary. For achieving this goal, unified processes, procedures
and standards need to be introduced. Improving methods of
fighting crime on an international level as well as to increase the
mutual recognition of collecting and analysing evidence by one
another is crucial for all member of the European Union, too [1–3] .
The object of the research is to present the possible tools of the
above mentioned goal, as well as to evaluate steps’ efficiency that
have been taken so far. A further aim is to present the narrower and
wider significance of laboratories carrying out the criminal testing
of DNA.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: drpadarzsolt@gmail.com (Z. Pádár).
In the study we investigated regulation, decisions, and rules
national and international measures of the given area. In order to
determine the successful accreditation’s time, we retrieved data
from the websites and databases of states’ accreditation board.
3. Results and discussion
The Prüm Decision decision’s two highlighted areas are the
mutual exchange of DNA and fingerprint data. Information
exchange can only achieve its objective if the provided data’s
quality and compliance is ensured. Hence, every single effort is
significant which assists the mutual recognition of evidences. In
order to improve the data exchange implemented by the Prüm
Decision, the Council issued decision 2008/616/JHA [4,6]. In the
decision they ordered the application of EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard
regarding the operation of testing and calibration laboratories in
order to ensure the integrity of DNA profiles. The standard covers
the whole expert activity starting from the incoming of the case
until issuing the opinion of the specialist [4]. It establishes a wide
documentation obligation which includes regular self-analysis and
external review, as well. In the area of forensic cooperation, Council

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigss.2015.09.163
1875-1768/ ã 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Z. Pádár, et al., Accreditation of forensic laboratories as a part of the “European Forensic Science 2020”
concept in countries of the Visegrad Group, Forensic Sci. Int. Gene. Suppl. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigss.2015.09.163
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FSIGSS 1160 No. of Pages 2
e2 Z. Pádár et al. / Forensic Science International: Genetics Supplement Series xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
Framework Decision 2009/905/JHA [7] on the accreditation of
judicial expert laboratories was a crucial step. According to this, the
accreditation of DNA laboratories had to be done until 30th
November 2013. Forensic fingerprint laboratories have to be
accredited until 30th November 2015 [5].
In 2011 the EU Council (EFSA 2020) formed the ambition to
create a European Forensic Science Area by 2020 in which routine
forensic processes for the collection, processing, use and delivery
of forensic data will be based on equivalent minimum forensic
science standards, and in which forensic service providers will
work on the basis of a common approach to implement these
standards that foster closer cooperation between them and
criminal justice systems.
Member States and the Commission works together to make
progress in the following areas:
- accreditation of forensic science institutes and laboratories;
- respect for minimum competence criteria for forensic science
personnel;
- establishment of common best practice manuals and their
application in daily work of forensic laboratories and institutes;
- conduct of proficiency tests/collaborative exercises in forensic
science activities at international level;
- application of minimum quality standards for scene-of-crime
investigations and evidence management from crime scene to
court room;
- recognition of equivalence of law enforcement forensic activities
with a view to avoiding duplication of effort through cancella-
tion of evidence owing to technical and qualitative differences,
and achieving significant reductions in the time taken to process
crimes with a cross-border component;
- identification of optimal and shared ways to create, update and
use forensic databases;
- use of advances in forensic science in the fight against terrorism,
organised crime and other criminal activities;
- forensic awareness, in particular through appropriate education
and training of the law enforcement and justice community;
- research and development projects to promote further devel-
opment of the forensic science infrastructure [7,8].
Why is accreditation important related to European forensic
area and goals mentioned above? Well, the UN ISO/IEC 17025
standard covers the whole forensic expert activity, prescribes very
detailed documentation requirements and demands regular self-
control and inner control as well. Accreditation deals directly with
the ability of a laboratory to provide quality forensic science
service [9].
So, if we investigate the wider significance we can determine
that accreditation is also important with respect to the European
Forensic Area to be formed until 2020. Hence, a successful
Please cite this article in press as: Z. Pádár, et al., Accreditation of forensic laboratories as a part of the “European Forensic Science 2020”
concept in countries of the Visegrad Group, Forensic Sci. Int. Gene. Suppl. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigss.2015.09.163
accreditation is a huge step from the point of view of cooperation
among members of the Visegrad Group.
The accreditation of DNA laboratories was carried out in the
investigated states according to the followings:
Czech Republic (Institute of Criminalistics Prague): 16.12.2013.
Slovakia (Institute of Forensic Sciences, Bratislava): 9.9.2013.
Poland (Central Forensic Laboratory of the Police, Warsaw):
24.04. 2013.
Hungary (Hungarian Institute for Forensic Sciences): 27.11.
2013.
4. Conclusion
The Council declared the concept of EFSA 2020 to ensure the
equivalence of professional forensic examinations. It aims at
working out and accepting European forensic science standards.
These will be instrumental for scientists and criminal investigators
in guiding them with the standard procedures for carrying out such
examinations. Because national legislations are basically so
different, a worldwide system to interrogate DNA profiles from
criminal justice databases seems currently a very distant project
[10]. To achieve further, it is essential for EU institutions and
organizations to be thorough and cautious. It will be a hard task to
realise the whole concept by 2020. Even so, it is obvious that the
accreditation of forensic DNA laboratories is a corner stone of the
above mentioned objectives.
Conflict of interest
Authors declare that have no competing interests.
References
[1] Forensic Science, Second Report of Session 2013–14 of House of Commons
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