Why we won’t be funding open access publishing any more - Cancer Research UK - Cancer News The open access movement was bold and promising, but ultimately disappointing. Now is the time to stop and call for a new way to make publishing work…

news.cancerresearchuk.org/2026/04/01/w... This is a brilliant move... I hope more research funders follow suit? Academic publishing is one of the biggest rackets going.

My submission from last year - I thought the MoJ consultation was far too narrow to be of use: pmsommer.com/wp-content/u...

The UK must accept it is no longer a global power Starmer has failed to level with the public that Britain’s control over its destiny is limited

My column this week: why does the government make claims about stability that it cannot deliver on? Why does the opposition have a foreign policy prospectus well outside the UK's grasp? The answer is in both cases an inability to face up or talk frankly about being a middle power:

This very straight news piece buried deep within the FT never uses words like corruption or insider dealing but every detail is quietly devastating. Why is the FT virtually alone in the UK media in covering this important story?

How do lawyers decide to trust digital evidence? - Peter Sommer The current doctrine is that material from a computer to be used in legal proceedings  is presumed to be reliable unless there is evidence to rebut that

Law’s Assessment of Digital Evidence Reliability. I have updated my commentary on this important issue. We still await a reaction from the UK Ministry of Justice of its Call from January 2025. pmsommer.com/how-do-lawye...

House of Lords report on Forensic Science: comment - Peter Sommer Digital forensics in the United Kingdom is still in a sad state. That is one of the outcomes of a recent report by the House of Lords Science and Technology

Digital Forensics / House of Lords. I have written a commentary on the just-published House of Lords report on forensic science. pmsommer.com/house-of-lor...

I wish I had been able to contribute as I had in the 2019 report. But the call came at an exceptionally busy time for me. As Carole says, deeply depressing.

That should be "event reconstruction". Example of unhelpful computer "assistance"!

And very little progress since the earlier report by the same committee. I'd have been more critical about the FSR's role in digital forensics. The weakness is emphasis on lab processes as opposed to individual experts who will give evidence and explain eventually reconstruction.

www.thejusticegap.com/peers-warn-m...

Child Protection Online. We need practical proposals how we are to manage this. That means not only attempts at legal definitions but thought as to what sort of evidence will need to be produced when you come to enforce. Looking forward to the consultation paper when it arrives./ends

Child Protection Online. There is rather too much "something must be done" and "the govenment aren't doing enough". and very little about how these ambitions will be achieved. There are great benefits to children in using the Internet and social media as well as the well-publicised down-sides. /1

Deeply stupid and dangerous arrangement. This will promote contractual lock-in even worse than all those PFI deals, except these aren't hospitals but our UK defence infrastructure.

I rarely disagree with you, Sam, and I'm not disagreeing with all of that post at all, but also, Jesus wept I wish the endless drama would shut the fuck up and perhaps the government could get on with delivering stuff.

Bezos could retrieve something from the disaster of his ownership of the @washingtonpost.com by emulating the Scott family in 1932. Give the paper away and endow it with, say, $1.5 bn. And have an independent trust run it in the public interest.

Why the UK needs to rethink the Investigatory Powers Act and allow intercept evidence in court | Computer Weekly The Investigatory Powers Act (IPA 2016), at 10 years old, is now becoming seriously out of date. It provides the main legal framework within which the police, the intelligence and security services, a...

Investigatory Powers: my feature article in Computer Weekly
www.computerweekly.com/feature/Why-...

An area you don't address: the head of the new NPS will have an extra ordinary width of remit. Does such a competent person exist? Look at the number of Met Police Commissioners leaving under a cloud of disappointment because the job covers too many responsibilities for one person.

UK NPS. The UK Home Office has a white paper covering a "British FBI", the 4th time a new LE entity has been so labelled. It will consolidate forensics nationally, including digital. What do people think about its prospects of success? (Couldn't see anything about funding).

Police reform: what to expect? For over a week now, government ministers and police chiefs have been 'rolling the pitch' for what is being billed as the biggest overhaul of policing in half a century. A carefully co-ordinated commu...

NEW The biggest police reform package for 50 years is days away.

The 43-force model is being ditched, so are PCCs, & the Home Office is taking back control….

Read - for free - everything you need to know about the Police Reform White Paper:

www.dannyshaw.net/post/police-...

But if it is done badly the defence will argue that evidence critical to the client has not been collected and is now lost for ever.

15 years of Forensic Science Inquiries 2011-2026 Pt 3: Private Forensic Science Providers YouTube video by Forensic Science in Crisis

15 years of Parliamentary Inquiries into Forensic Science through the lens of the private companies tasked to provide the services following the closure of the Forensic Science Service , a thread 1/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J3i...

I really don't care - and neither should The Times.

Labour MPs anticipate 'politically inept' U-turn on social media ban The government has been reluctant to support a ban but it is facing pressure from both its own MPs and the Conservatives.

news.sky.com/story/labour...

I worked on the ancestor of BBC London, then called London Plus, in the 80s, and IIRC it did a much better job of covering London. I suspect part of the problem is an absence of cash: it's easier to send a reporter to a red carpet thing than to have them off-diary and digging into a story for weeks

EncroChat | Venetic Evidence, Dilemmas and Decisions - Peter Sommer Operation Venetic, the exploitation of the breaking of the EncroChat strongly encrypted smartphone service used by serious organised criminals, was at one

EncroChat Channel 4 doc: Not to detract from the police's glory but there was no mention that the Encro evidence itself was highly problematic. French refused to allow the decryption method to tested, the evidence itself showed deep faults and may not have been admissible. shorturl.at/br8iR

EncroChat | Venetic Evidence, Dilemmas and Decisions - Peter Sommer Operation Venetic, the exploitation of the breaking of the EncroChat strongly encrypted smartphone service used by serious organised criminals, was at one

EncroChat Channel 4. Last night's doc centred around Bedfordshire Police followed earlier docs around the Met and GMP. It showed, rather well, the challenges of turning the Encro evidence into prosecutions.

EncroChat | Venetic Evidence, Dilemmas and Decisions - Peter Sommer Operation Venetic, the exploitation of the breaking of the EncroChat strongly encrypted smartphone service used by serious organised criminals, was at one

EncroChat Channel 4: but there was no mention that the Encro evidence itself was highly problematic. French refused to allow the decryption method to tested, the evidence itself showed deep faults and may not have been admissible. shorturl.at/br8iR

EncroChat | Venetic Evidence, Dilemmas and Decisions - Peter Sommer Operation Venetic, the exploitation of the breaking of the EncroChat strongly encrypted smartphone service used by serious organised criminals, was at one

EncroChat Channel 4. Last night's doc centred around Bedfordshire Police followed earlier docs around the Met and GMP. It showed, rather well, the challenges of turning the Encro evidence iinto prosecutions. Not to detract from the police's glory.../1

EncroChat | Venetic Evidence, Dilemmas and Decisions - Peter Sommer Operation Venetic, the exploitation of the breaking of the EncroChat strongly encrypted smartphone service used by serious organised criminals, was at one

EncroChat/Operation Venetic

Now that I have finished my last EncroChat expert witness instruction I thought I'd provide a narrative about the decisions and dilemmas that characterised the UK's NCA Operation Venetic. shorturl.at/br8iR

EncroChat | Venetic Evidence, Dilemmas and Decisions - Peter Sommer Operation Venetic, the exploitation of the breaking of the EncroChat strongly encrypted smartphone service used by serious organised criminals, was at one

EncroChat/Operation Venetic

Now that I have finished my last EncroChat expert witness instruction I thought I'd provide a narrative about the decisions and dilemmas that characterised the UK's NCA Operation Venetic. shorturl.at/br8iR