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House of Lords committee concerned over digital forensics backlog

Lords’ Science and Technology Committee warns policing and justice system is unequipped to make use of technologies such as AI, and calls on government to handle digital forensics backlog

Lis Evenstad
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Published: 17 Feb 2026 12:00

A report by the House of Lords Science and Technology committee warns that the “collapsing forensic science system” in the country is a “national scandal waiting to happen”.

The report highlights failures in digital forensics and a failure to respond to new technologies in a fragmented system.

“Criminal cases are collapsing, often due to missing or damaged evidence,” the report said. “The market meant to provide many forensic services has collapsed. Police provision is patchy, inconsistent and lacking in oversight.

“Digital forensics is increasingly important, but a backlog of over 20,000 digital devices to be analysed has not shrunk in years. Ministers admit that the system needs reform.”

Giving evidence to the committee, policing and crime minister Sarah Jones said the problems evident now are symptoms of “wider problems we have had in policing”, including a lack of co-ordination.

“The thing I found most shocking, as a new minister in this space, is the lack of real understanding of what is actually going on across the country on forensics,” she told the committee. “We do not know how much money is spent, how many delays there are or the balance between the private sector and in-house.

“If we can have performance data where we have standardisation of what is expected, what is good practice and what all forces should be doing, we can shine a light on forensics in a way that we just cannot at the moment.”

Taking responsibility

Also giving evidence, Carole McCartney, professor of law and criminal justice at the University of Leicester and member of the Westminster Commission, added that there are issues with who takes responsibility for forensic science.

“There is a problem with the Home Office but, to be perfectly honest, the Ministry of Justice is even worse,” she said, adding that when the commission would approach them for a meeting, they would be told “there is nobody here to talk to”.

“Now we solve everything using digital forensics … it is not particularly well regulated … we will undoubtedly have miscarriages of justice that we will not be able to solve, either because we do not have the expertise or because we do not have the evidence because we did not seize it in the first place,” said McCartney.

Little improvement

The committee’s previous enquiry into forensic science in 2019 highlighted that 80% of crimes investigated by the Metropolitan Police involved a digital element, and since then, technology has continued to evolve.

“This has presented problems with storage and analysis of evidence; meanwhile, developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have promised some solutions while also generating other challenges such as deepfakes,” the report said.

Back in 2019, the committee highlighted problems with the large backlog in digital forensics, including volumes of evidence and the sector’s ability to process, analyse and store it.

The increased use of AI both by criminals and by its potential to solve cases also continues to be an issue.

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One witness giving evidence said the rate of evolution in both digital forensics and AI means that “current systems are pretty much unsustainable”, and the committee’s report said there is no sufficient oversight, leading to concerns around regulation of digital traces.

“Since our 2019 report, AI has developed rapidly,” the report said. “Generative AI presents an increasing challenge to the reliability of digital evidence: deepfake images and other data are increasingly difficult to detect. This will be a challenge for investigators, but also for courts: judges, counsel and jurors will all need to be equipped and assisted in understanding the evidential reliability of such material.

“AI is also a potential means of analysing huge volumes of data. However, this needs to be done reliably, fairly and in a trusted way, something which current AI models struggle with to the standards the criminal justice system demands. We were unconvinced that the current policing and criminal justice system is sufficiently well-equipped to make the best use of these technologies, nor is the market well-positioned to allow new providers to innovate.”

In January 2026, home secretary Shabana Mahmood announced £115m in funding to support the deployment of AI and facial recognition throughout UK policing, while establishing a new National Police Service to streamline the fragmented, 43-force model the UK currently operates under.

The committee said it welcomed the funding and plans to develop AI capabilities, but added that it wanted clarification on how much of this funding will be used on forensics.

“The new centralised forensics function should build national capacity in this area, providing guidance and approved software, algorithms and procedures, for the storage and analysis of digital forensic data and use of AI,” it said.

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