Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress has been made on the Transforming Forensics Programme; and whether she plans to provide further funding to the programme.

The Transforming Forensics Programme supports the modernisation of forensic services through the development of new services, tools and applications.

Since its inception, achievements have included setting up the Forensics Capability Network which supports forensics practitioners nationally, supporting the government response to the Rape Review by rolling out specialist digital forensics equipment to 24 forces, and developing an end-to-end digitised fingerprinting app which is available to forces for adoption.

The programme will close at the end of this financial year, having transitioned its ongoing activities into the Police Digital Service.