Recommendation FP82: Recommendation 82
From The Fingerprint Inquiry Report, published 14 December 2011.
Recommendation
Specific matters to be included in the scheme of research and development include: (i) the frequency of particular characteristics or combinations of characteristics in fingerprints; (ii) the use of data as to the frequency of particular characteristics or combinations of characteristics as a means of assisting examiners in their work; (iii) the weight to be given to third level detail, and as to its reliability; (iv) distortion and the effect of movement; (v) which marks ought to be assessed as complex; (vi) the specific factors that may cause variations among examiners; and (vii) contextual bias.
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
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 the addressee has been found in the sources searched (last checked 18 June 2026). This is separate from the response above.