Recommendation FP9: Features demonstrable to lay persons
From The Fingerprint Inquiry Report, published 14 December 2011.
Recommendation
Features on which examiners rely should be demonstrable to a lay person with normal eye sight as observable in the mark.
In brief (written by this site)
The Inquiry recommended that fingerprint features examiners rely on be demonstrable to lay persons. In December 2011, the Scottish Police Services Authority accepted the recommendation and stated that its forensic services would develop an action plan to make the necessary improvements before integrating into the single Scottish Police Service in 2013-14 (Scottish Police Services Authority response, Dec 2011).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 1 Oct 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
About this summary
This recommendation asks for cultural or behavioural change, which is difficult to verify from published sources alone. The record reflects policy commitments rather than measured outcomes.
Government response
The Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) accepts all the Inquiry's findings and all of the recommendations made of it by the Inquiry. SPSA Forensic Services will be developing an action plan with the aim of making the necessary improvements in time for fingerprints to integrate into the new single Scottish Police Service in 2013-14.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: These are the words of the Scottish Police Services Authority, from its news release of 14 December 2011 (Internet Archive capture; its website closed when the Authority was dissolved). The site files them under the Scottish Police Authority, which took over its forensic services in 2013.
We should all recognise that there have been significant advances in the delivery of Scotland's forensic services since the McKie case, and I am confident that the recommendations from this Inquiry will further enhance these services.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
The Scottish Government's news release of 14 December 2011, the day the report was published, is its only published statement on the recommendations. Its one sentence about them is given for all of them together and states no position. The Scottish Police Services Authority's release of the same day accepts "all of the recommendations made of it by the Inquiry" without listing them; the site records that on the recommendations addressed to its forensic service. The Authority no longer exists, and the site files its words under the Scottish Police Authority, which took over its forensic services in 2013.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from SPA Forensic Services has been found in the sources searched (last checked 18 June 2026). This is separate from the response above.
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Scottish Police Authority
Response - Scottish Government
Response