Carrying Out Laboratory Activities Order, 2016

L.N. 102 of 2016

EUROPEAN UNION ACT

(CAP. 460)

Accreditation of Forensic Service Providers

Carrying Out Laboratory Activities Order, 2016

IN exercise of the powers conferred by article 4(2) of the

European Union Act, the Prime Minister has made the following

Order:-

The title of this Order is the Accreditation of Forensic Citation.

Service Providers carrying out Laboratory Activities Order, 2016.

In this Order, unless the context otherwise requires

Interpretation.

"dactyloscopic data" means fingerprint images, images of

fingerprint latents, palm prints, palm print latents and templates of

such images (coded minutiae);

"DNA-profile" means a letter or number code which represents

a set of identification characteristics of the non-coding part of an

analysed human DNA sample, i.e. the particular molecular structure

at the various DNA locations (loci);

"the European Union" means the European Union as referred to

in the Treaty;

"forensic service provider" means any organisation, public or

private, that carries out forensic laboratory activities at the request of

competent law enforcement or judicial authorities;

"laboratory activity" means any measure taken in a laboratory

when locating and recovering traces on items, as well as developing,

analysing and interpreting forensic evidence, with a view to providing

expert opinions or exchanging forensic evidence;

"national accreditation body" means the sole body in Malta or in

any other Member State of the European Union that performs

accreditation with authority derived from the State as referred to in

Regulation (EC) No 765/2008;

"results of laboratory activities" means any analytical outputs

and directly associated interpretation;

"the Treaty" shall have the same meaning assigned to it by

article 2 of the European Union Act.

This Order implements the provisions of Council Implementation

Framework Decision 2009/905/JHA of 30 November 2009 on and application.

Accreditation of Forensic Service Providers carrying out Laboratory

Activities and shall apply to laboratory activities resulting in

(a)

DNA-profile; and

(b)

dactyloscopic data.

The purpose of this Order is to ensure that

(a)

results of accredited forensic service providers

carrying out laboratory activities in other Member States of the

European Union are recognised by Maltese authorities

responsible for the prevention, detection, and investigation of

criminal offences as being equally reliable as the results of

laboratory activities carried out by domestic forensic service

providers accredited to EN ISO/IEC 17025; and

(b)

forensic service providers carrying out laboratory

activities in Malta are accredited in conformity with EN ISO/

IEC 17025.

Any measure taken outside a laboratory, including the

taking of dactyloscopic data or measures taken at the scene of

incident, the scene of crime or forensic analyses carried out outside

laboratories, is beyond the scope of this Order.

This Order is without prejudice to legal provisions

concerning the judicial assessment of evidence.

Forensic service providers may carry out laboratory

activities in Malta if they are accredited by the national accreditation

body, as complying with EN ISO/IEC 17025.

(1)

As from the date of the entry into force of this

Order, the results of accredited forensic service providers carrying out

laboratory activities in any Member of the European Union shall be

recognised as reliable by Maltese authorities responsible for the

prevention, detection, and investigation of criminal offences.

(2) This Order does not affect the validity, established in

accordance with national applicable rules, of the results of laboratory

activities carried out prior to its entry in force, even if the forensic

service provider was not accredited to comply with EN ISO/IEC

17025.

€0.18