£23m Dundee lab puts Scotland at the forefront in forensic science

Published on Sunday 6 June 2010 23:08

SCOTLAND'S latest high-tech weapon in the fight to catch criminals and secure convictions officially opens today.

Rushton Court in Dundee is the first purpose-built forensic science laboratory in Scotland in almost 15 years, built at a cost of 23.3 million. More than 100 forensic science experts and 30 information and communications technology specialists from the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) will work at the facility.

Forensic scientists have complained for years about inadequate and outdated facilities in the city, with DNA profiles taking up to 20 days because of the limitations and the volume of cases sent for analysis. Investigations were being hampered, staff said, by a chronic shortage of modern labs and equipment.

Experts have moved from 1970s-built converted offices in Tayside Police headquarters to a new five-storey, 50,000sq ft facility on the Dundee One site. It includes many of the latest crime-fighting technologies such as a photographic studio, biology, drug and chemistry laboratories, fingerprint and scene examination units and the Scottish DNA Database.

The facility is named after the late Dr Donald Rushton, a pioneering pathologist, who helped introduce forensic science to Dundee between the early 1960s and late 1980s.

Tom Nelson, director of SPSA Forensic Services, said: "

The laboratories and enhanced facilities will enable us to take forensic science in new and exciting directions, supporting advances in academic and technical knowledge, while providing an effective service to our customers across Scottish policing.

"Much work has been done to develop this state-of-the-art facility and I am delighted with the result which can be counted among the best in the UK."

There are four Scottish forensic science laboratories, at Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Rushton Court was designed to "optimise the control of evidence", said senior managers. The labs have been flooded with natural light as the best environment for forensic examination. Air pressure and conditions are closely controlled to eliminate any risk of contamination.

Experts will have the first chance to use laboratory space designed to analyse blood patterns to help reconstruct crime scenes. The facility can handle large items such as doors and vehicles. The SPSA said these rooms have been fitted with black magnetic walls and infra-red lighting, to allow specialised experiments that would not be possible elsewhere. A wet examination room will allow new techniques to recover fingerprints from plastics.

Cabinet secretary for justice Kenny MacAskill, who will open the facility at a ceremony today, said: "Forensic science has come a long way since Dr Rushton started his pioneering work in Dundee in the 1960s. Scotland's forensic scientists are at the forefront of new techniques in the use of DNA to identify individuals and provide the police with leads to investigate. It is more important than ever that we provide these scientists with the tools and facilities they need."

The Scottish Government has approved development of a new laboratory at the Scottish Crime Campus at Gartcosh to replace the Glasgow laboratory after reported backlogs from Strathclyde Police earlier this year.