The Forensic Science Division of the Government Laboratory is one of the largest and most sophisticated crime laboratories in the Asia-Pacific region, providing a wide variety of scientific services to law enforcement departments in Hong Kong. The division comprises two specialist groups which were reorganised in April into the Criminalistics and Quality Management Group and the Drugs, Toxicology and Documents Group.

    Apart from the creation of a new Scene of Crime and Quality Management Section, a third Biochemical Sciences Section has been set up under the Criminalistics and Quality Management Group. The number of criminal cases submitted by the Police Force to the Biochemical Sciences Sections for forensic DNA analysis increased sharply during the year, from 1 089 cases in 2001 to 3 959.

    In work concerning criminal cases in which no suspects had been arrested, DNA profiles from blood and other stains recovered from scenes of crime were compared with DNA databases of profiles from offenders and profiles of 'scene' samples from other unsolved crimes. During the year, the comparison of DNA profiles from new cases with database profiles resulted in 81 pairs of 'scene to scene' or 'scene to person' matches, leading to further police investigations. At the same time, the Parentage Testing Section also faced a surge in its workload, with more than 1 500 cases being received.

    The Drugs, Toxicology and Documents Group comprises the Controlled Drugs Sections, the Forensic Toxicology Sections and the Questioned Documents Sections. In 2002, the group dealt with a relatively large number of cases involving the psychotropic substances ketamine, 'ecstasy' and nimetazepam. There was also an increase in the number of urine samples submitted for the analysis of ketamine which has risen by 47 per cent. In addition, the number of cases involving ketamine and amphetamine type stimulants (including 'ecstasy') in toxicological examinations showed a moderate increase. Express cases pertaining to the examination of identity cards and travel documents continued to feature strongly in the casework of the Questioned Documents Sections which handled a total of 2 008 cases of this nature in 2002.

    A delegation comprising seven members (six from the Forensic Science Division of the Government Laboratory and one from the University of Hong Kong) attended the 16th Meeting of the International Association of Forensic Sciences from September 2 to 7, in Montpellier, France. This is the only world-wide association to bring together people working in forensic science, and triennial meetings have been organised every three years since 1957. At the meeting, the association chose Hong Kong as the host city for its 17th Meeting in 2005.