The development of the forensic gait analysis quality assurance process in the UK

The Forensic Science Regulator, sponsored by the UK Home Office, was tasked with ‘setting and monitoring quality standards for the use of forensic science in the Criminal Justice System’. The enormous task of providing standards regulations for every forensic science discipline in England and Wales by a Forensic Science Regulator devoid of statutory powers was never going to be completed quickly or easily. The Forensic Science Regulator suggested a separate ‘Code of Practice, Ethics and Professional Standards in Forensic Podiatry’ should be developed using similar, previously submitted forensic anthropology and archaeology draft documents as a template. Wilson-Wilde’s diagrammatic representation of the relationship between quality assurance and the forensic environment reflects relevant requirements in forensic gait analysis, and the model forms the basis on which forensic gait analysis quality requirements are built. Validation of methods used in forensic gait analysis is recognised by the forensic gait analysis community as essential and urgent.