Public Inquiry Recommendations

Fingerprint evidence should be recognised as opinion evidence, not fact, and those involved in the criminal justice system need to assess it as such on its merits.

Examiners should discontinue reporting conclusions on identification or exclusion with a claim to 100% certainty or on any other basis suggesting that fingerprint evidence is infallible.

Experts should list all variables considered and state whether the conclusion has been reached through training and personal experience or on any other basis such as statistical analysis.

Features on which examiners rely should be demonstrable to a lay person with normal eye sight as observable in the mark.

Expert opinion should be informed by proper academic study of the subject.

Note-taking as to the detail found on analysis and the process of comparison, though not mandatory, should become the general practice for all fingerprint comparison work.

Experts should record and properly disclose all of the basis of their opinion to enable a court to understand it and the defence to assess it.

Before a finding of 'unable to exclude' is led in evidence, careful consideration will require to be given to (a) the types of mark for which such a finding is …

Processes should be developed to ensure that complex marks such as those in question are treated differently, by examination by three suitably qualified examiners who reach their conclusion independently, make …