BRITISH ACADEMY OF FORENSIC SCIENCES The 66th Annual General Meeiing on Thurs. 13th Novcmber 2025 Wotshipful Society of Apothecaries, Black Fiiars Iane. kndon EC4V 6EJ ea on Thurs. 13th Noy. 2 flJS Year-end accounts Financial year. 1st January 2024- 31st December 2024 [BAFS account ending *61541 Bd#nce of accourkt @. 31st Decernr ?0?4 . 1.'6,IJ53 (ui 11.11 l)th.. ?{}?$ txross pn)fitl ¢. L.35.517 1 Joi5/1)1(. '?5 Total Inc(>me L3(J.407 Totsi E¥penditure £41871 rf. l.in.4ni I la31 Drc. '25, Instant updating view for yeat 2025: Account @ 31st (ktoher 2025 £13.158.18 Isent to indcpcndtnt auditorl b. Full & Assoaate Membership Subscriptions: xec. univLrsalli' 2%reecl ri) InLrLifiL innii.il membership fees From £60 to LIO. Dcnise 2sk% that Stan&"0derS arL #mLnd- Cup!. attachLCI. Inve$tment- Th£ i-Aiuau()n Ino fce ro exit) uf our liJnkF-rLYm Jni'e5rnicni tujicl n(Iii" '? 7114 .'cl. L??.31i on 31 st Dec. ?4). Trxc) and l are thc trustees of B,. ini'csttncnr pi)rrtr()Ii() tuiicl. Y e put L3i,OW in the (und in August 2022. Ix'e rook out1-.15,¢KMI in Sept ?()? ? Ibetr(ITe ni! renLifi In August 2022. BAFS in5tructcd as its illv¢smi¢nt marLagerQwltoikn a C.haTiTh" Iluth()rised Investment Fund IC.IIF) yaficl} fc)T charities qu2knf!-ing fnr ITK tax re]icf. (-liarlr% Itcsquira is our mr. ()ur investment consistently delii.ered a kugher return than cash / %0%.. 1x)nd. On Wed. 5th Nov. 202). at 6ptt). fi]nd-nianakycr.%]x)kL dircctli tc> rk. LXLf. & xnsii'LfLII qs. This pui Ihe exe¢. the picrure rc optinns t(} consider (as permitted b!. the ("liariry Comnws4C>n
nd the timjng ot this Tcvyew aligned ivjrh (Jur thiEe-!'ear [--CA-qUeted tund tevieKI". The arL
especJ211J" imFX)rtant consider2tJ<)ns Fi)r Jniesrjnx ch]n- tunds- inc. rhe imperil ril'e jniinim2111" ch(x)£e x reputable. rc&wlated mi-esmient h]nd. ti) prc5en'c th¢ Ini-esniilnr. Ilncl itii) ti. growth. Thi5 Js In coattast tt) fftni'e%tiE¥Tr on Ihe owi oiarket (u-hcre groNI'rh/protJr is tliL' ¢i}l¢ .iTriiii. Abigail Biight TREASURER Wed. 5th November 2025
NCES •ndod 31st De¢ember 2024 2023 2024 INCOME 92f2 SL3bscFipkons 1 T379 Royattt88 472 ITNestment kn(ne 7S92 20846 1843 9192 Events 36255 2870 382SO EXPEt4DITURE Slujjent Pfizes Even15 2208 12019 375 14910 576 21251 7200 250 Instsrance Staff. PAYE & Agaw Costs MS&LCLlSt$ D8pr8c4allon PiofessN)nal Ser¥lc Donat4on A*xountanry Website 607 16897 7200 250 1902 750 3988 750 51003 43121 .14748 Drtt for yoar
THE BRITISH ACADEMY OF FORETr SCIENCES HEET as al 31st D•cember 2024 2023 2024 FIXED ASSETS Offi1 Equipment 659 Less .' Depreuation 250 250 CURRENT ASSETS Cash at Bank. Currwl pL(Unt Inveslment Deblors & PrePaYts 11599 20472 5135 22315 32071 27450 Less . CURREIIT UABILMES Edrto 725 725 31346 26725 32005 27134 REPRESEiifED BY: Balance as at 1st January 2024 Less .' DeficFt for ts year 4fj753 14748 32005 4871 32005 27134 Ppfove the and i e accijunts and oxffirm that we have made ava ation f r the preparation ther tle all the relevant AIRMAN SURER
ACCOUNTANfs REPORT TO THE BRfflSH ACADEMY OF FORENSIC SCIE14CES on the accounts for the year ended 31st Dlber2024 With regard to these acwunts there is no Fryuwwnent for a Iixmal audiL My examinatKJn indudes a revMv of the acwjntvig rerdS kept and a o)fryarison of the accounts Pfesented Mth those records. It also indudes c0nshJeratic of any unusual items or dLsckbsures in th• (jr*i$ and seekuw oyplanat#)ns concoming any such matters. l am pleased to confimi that the Academy has kept prop81 actountng records for tho year ended 31st Decsmber 2024 and that the acwunts as at that dale grve a true and fair view of the state of affairs of Ihe ACadnY as at th8 ènd of the fiar1 year and of ivs deti¢it for the f#)ancial yèar. SiJne(t Peter Walker 6 pIn Lane KnaTesborough HG5 8ED
Secretary-General's Report 2025 Our last yearfs AGM was held on 29 October 2024 at The Wor5hipfvl Society of Apothecaries. Since the last AGM in Ortober of last year the Executive Council has met on four occasions With our President, Peter Watson the chair. Professor Andrew Forrester. our journal editor. continues to raise the profile of Medicine, Science and the Law. Our impact factor has increased to 1.7 which has put us in the top 25% of law related journals, worldwide. We rejett around 75% of all submissions, some of which are completely unsuitable and others not of sufficient quality. This has helped increase the quality of the journal which has increased its instttlrtional value. However our contract wrth the publishers, Sage, is due for renewal in 2026. and they will expect a higher level of funding to continue its publication. This is a very important part of what BAFS offers tts members across the wodd and we have discussed, and will propose. an increase to our membership fee to help support that incree. Fundin& however, conti17ues to be a problem for BAFS and costs associated wtth administration and running the website a not if7considerable it were to maintain the sort of website that many other organization5 can support Thls year we awarded the Kin5 Science prize for 2024-25 to Michael Menear. His project was'A deeper insight into the transfer. persistence. prevalence and recovery mechanisms of body fluid- associated MRNA markers.. Our legal prize. avrarded through the Cty Law School, goes to Jonathan Waghorne for his Crown Court Practice Elective. Both Michael and Jonathan have received their monetary prize and will be present èt the dinner tonight so that we can congratulate them and give them their certificates. In the past we have awarded a medical prize and a national law prize in litigation through the University of Law. Neither have been awarded for the last two or more years. Coordination of an appropriate as5e55ment that might reach a more representative body across the UK, along with the necessary examination will require significant effort from our membership but we welcome ideas for the future. We have had several meetings over the past year and have discussed the possibilitie5 of putting out webinars,. this has not moved forward and we will continue to discuss this a5 a possibility in the future as they are of wide interest. It requires some commitment from members. not only n willingness to provide the material, but also a significant financial input. Please let us know if anyone is interested in helping to make this happen. We have held a joint meeting with the RSM last year in November: 'Death by GP5 and other human factors in accident cases and a clinical adverse eveny. Sadly, possibly because of the short notice, this was not well attended by our members. We will engage with the RSM again through our new president and I would ask all members to consider attending our events a5 they are not only really interesting, but a great opportuntty for networking.
In some contrast. our new president, John Kennedy, organized a highly successful meeting on Al The Application of Al wtthin our Justice System. in April. which many of us attended. Thank you to John for that. In December we will hold the Lund Lecture. Sir Thomas Lund gives his name to our biennial BAFS lectufe. A medic and then a solicitor he was one of the prime movers in the design of the legal aid system in 1949. He wa5 our second resident in 1961 and died in 1981. We will honour him when Professor Fiona Wilcox, His Majestys Senior Coroner for Innerwest London. give5 her lecture om the 'Air India Plane Crash, Role of the Coroner in DVI.. This will be on 10 December at 18=30 in Bush House. The booking for this is available on the website= please make every effort to attend what will be an extremely interesting lerture. Tonight. we will hear from Professor Seena Fazel, who is the Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, talking about'Autism, diminished responsibility. and the complicated epidemiology of violent crime,. We are looking forward to that. My thanks go especially to our current Treasurer. Abigail Bright. and to Lesley Nott, our administrator. who works tirele55ly. successfully managing the events, introducing and administering our meetings. Lesley gathers a team of students who help us at events 501 would also like to thank them for their 3sSlStance. In her tole as treasurer. Abigail will be asking you about an increase in our membership fees. The proposed increase will still place membership of BAFS at a level below organizations that other might belong to. such as the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences, and the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. Finally, I want to thank our Outgoing President, Peter Watson. Peter has arranged meetings in hi5 native Scotland which we wamly welcome and we hope that we can undertake more events north of the border. We are welcoming our new President, John Kennedy. who is a forensic imagery expert and we look forward to his lead for BAFS in the future. Although somewhat out of turn in our specialism5= medicine. science and the law. John was such an ideal candidate for the position that we felt justified in moving him foThvard and we can look for a representative of medicine perhaps in two years, time. l am standing down as Secretary-General and handing over to another member of the EC. Andy Stevenson, who I hope you will warnily welcome. l am not going away, however, and hope to be elected as an EC member and support Andy in his new role. I hope everyone enjoys tonight Denise Syndercombe Court