Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department has taken to increase the capacity for complex toxicology testing.

Management of forensics capacity is an operational matter for the police.

The Home Office has supported policing in setting up a specialist team within the Forensic Capability Network to help stabilise and manage the market.

Through the Police Transformation Fund, the Home Office has also invested £9.5m in 2018/19 and is investing £17.5m in 2019/20 in the Transforming Forensics Programme (TF). The Programme is a police-led national effort to deliver high-quality specialist forensic capabilities which are sustainable to meet future challenges and demand.