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 Decern￿r ?0?4
. 1.'6,IJ53 (ui 11.11 l)th.. ?{}?$
txross pn)fitl
¢. L.35.517 1 Joi￿5/1)1(. '?5
Total Inc(>me
L3(J.407
Totsi E¥penditure
£41871
rf. l.in.4ni I la￿31 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&"￿0￿derS 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) yafic￿l} fc)T charities qu2knf!-ing fnr ITK tax re]icf. (-liarlr% Itcsquira
is our m￿￿r. ()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 Comnws4￿C>n
#nd the timjng ot this Tcvyew aligned ivjrh (Jur thiEe-!'ear [--CA-qU￿￿e￿ted 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 D￿r￿tt 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 & PrePaY￿ts
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 D￿lber2024
With regard to these acwunts there is no Fryuwwnent for a Iixmal audiL
My examinatKJn indudes a revMv of the acwjntvig re￿rdS 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 ACad￿nY as at th8 ènd of the fi￿ar￿1 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 incre￿e.
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 Kin￿5 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