PJ confirms a lack of accreditation, but guarantees: “Experts are valid”

A Judicial Police (PJ) confirmed this Friday that specialties of Forensic Genetics (DNA) and Lofoscopy of the Scientific Police Laboratory (LPC) “are not yet within the scope of accreditation” of the Portuguese Accreditation Institute (IPAC).

In an explanation, sent to the editors after it was advanced that the PJ laboratory was not accredited for fingerprint analysis or for DNA testing, the authority ensured that the expertise carried out follows “technical procedures” and “concrete quality assurance and control mechanisms”, being “valid and appreciated in accordance with the standards provided for”.

The authority stressed that the LPC is accredited “according to NP EN ISO/IEC 17025:2018 for various expert activities and has a Quality Management System (SGQ) implemented”.

Although both specialties are not yet accredited, the institution ensures that the expert activity is supported by “methods subject to technical validation”, “annual participation in international trials of proficiency and interlaboratory comparison”, as well as “validation of expertise by qualified experts”.

The PJ also highlighted the “application of formalized mechanisms for qualification and maintenance of the technical competence of professionals, provided for in procedures that are integral to the SGQ” and the “existence of control procedures, traceability and monitoring of the quality of the expert activity”.

“ These mechanisms allow a systematic assessment of the competence of professionals, the adequacy of methods and the quality of the results produced, constituting fundamental tools for the reliability of the expert activity, demonstrating the existence of an organized structure of quality assurance, based on documented procedures and internal and external evaluation mechanisms ", assured the PJ.

With regard to Forensic Genetics, PJ reported that the Biology Sector is already integrated into the Quality Management System of the LPC, and in 2025, a pre-auditory was held and, on 9 and 10 April 2026, an internal audit.

Following this work, the formal application for accreditation was submitted to IPAC and the evaluation is scheduled for 29 and 30 October 2026.

The Judiciary Identification and Lofoscopy Sector “is in the process of internal preparation for accreditation”.

In clarification, the Judicial Police also addressed the legal framework for expert activity, stating that Council Framework Decision 2009/905/JHA on the recognition of results, “does not affect national standards on judicial evaluation of evidence”.

The police recalled that, in Portugal, “experts are carried out in an appropriate establishment, laboratory or official service or, where this is not possible or appropriate, by an expert appointed from among persons on lists of experts existing in each county, or, in the absence or impossibility of reply in good time, by person of honorability and recognised competence in the matter concerned”.

The LPC, in turn, “exercises its activity throughout the national territory, has the nature of an official laboratory in accordance with the law, enjoys technical and scientific autonomy, in particular by conducting expertise in the various fields of forensic science, including audio and sound, ballistics, biology, criminalistics, documents and currency, drugs and toxicology, manual writing, criminalistic image, physics, lophoscopy, marks and tools and chemistry”.

“ Consequently, the expertise carried out by the CPL in criminal proceedings is valid and assessed in accordance with the rules laid down in the CPP”, concluded PJ.