UKAS accredits first organisation in the UK for forensic cell site analysis

The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has accredited the first company in the UK to undertake forensic cell site analysis activities to the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. IntaForensic Ltd successfully gained the accreditation following a second development pilot assessment programme, where two forensic units were assessed.

"This is good news for customers because they can be assured of the reliability of test results and good news for suppliers as they can now have confidence in the standards they must achieve for accreditation by UKAS."

- Dr Tom Rose CQP MCQI, Research Fellow, Institute of Applied Health Research (University of Birmingham)

Dr Tom Rose, Research Fellow at the Institute of Applied Health Research (University of Birmingham) commented on the new IntaForensic accreditation: “It is great that after a pilot study by UKAS based on ISO/IEC 17025, this step has been taken for forensic cell site analysis in the United Kingdom. This is good news for customers because they can be assured of the reliability of test results, and good news for suppliers as they can now have confidence in the standards they must achieve for accreditation by UKAS.”

Accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 is important to ensure accurate and reliable results from laboratory testing, calibration, sampling, and measurement services. IntaForensic’s accreditation includes consideration of ILAC G19:08/2014 Modules in a forensic science process, UKAS LAB 13 Guidance on the application of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 – ‘Dealing with expressions of opinions and interpretations’, and the FSR-C-135 Digital forensics – ‘Cell site analysis’ appendix to the forensic science regulator's code of practice and conduct.

The government’s forensic science regulator (FSR), which regulates forensic science activities within the UK’s legal system, has defined the accreditation requirements to fall under the Forensic science regulator Act 2021 – ‘Geolocation analysis’. The development pilot assessment programme was designed to support FSR in determining the applicable quality assurance mechanism for cell site analysis and for UKAS to establish the appropriate international standard to use for the assessment of this activity.