Congratulations to the SPSA Staff at Howdenhall, Edinburgh

That the Parliament notes that the staff at the Edinburgh Forensic Laboratory at Howdenhall are to receive an award at the Scottish Policing Awards on 1 November 2010 in recognition of their response to a firebomb attack on the facility in February 2010; further notes that the staff were recipients of a Scottish Policing Award last year in relation to the conviction of Peter Tobin for the murder of Vicki Hamilton; believes that this is further evidence of the top quality service that the staff at Howdenhall provide; urges the Cabinet Secretary for Justice to give equal consideration to option 2 in the Scottish Police Service Authority’s (SPSA) Forensic Services Modernisation Options Paper; asks the cabinet secretary to publish the option recommended by SPSA as soon as possible in order to allow what it considers proper scrutiny to be made before a decision is reached; considers that the SPSA consultation process was a sham, and is of the view that a withdrawal in key services at the forensics lab at Howdenhall would succeed where a firebomb failed.