Repair and maintenance services

Description

Forensic Science Northern Ireland has a service level agreement with the Police Service of Northern Ireland to return speed metering equipment to the manufacturer for repair and calibration. PSNI have approximately 200 LTI Laser speed meters in operational use within Northern Ireland in support of their Road Safety Policy. There are approximately 33 LTI 20.20s and 167 LTI Ultralytes/Ultralyte 1 000s handheld laser speed metering devices. This equipment is used to obtain ‘evidential’ readings of a target vehicle’s speed which are used for prosecution purposes. Under the terms of the Home Office type approval of these devices ‘The Speedmeter Handbook (Fourth Edition) Publication Number 15/05 Home Office Scientific Development Branch’, the LTI Laser speed detection equipment needs to be calibrated and repaired by the manufacturer, the manufacturer’s appointed agent or a suitable qualified technician offering appropriate evidence of technical and professional competence. The calibration period as identified within ‘The Speedmeter Handbook (Fourth Edition) Publication Number 15/05 Home Office Scientific Development Branch’, is specified as 1 year. All 200 LTI Laser speedmeters must be calibrated on a yearly basis by the manufacturer, the manufacturer’s appointed agent or a suitable qualified technician. It should also be noted that throughout the year there are a number of devices that require service or repair (approximately 70 require service/repair per year) and as per the Home Office requirements, the equipment must be repaired/serviced by the manufacturer, the manufacturer’s appointed agent or a suitable qualified technician offering appropriate evidence of technical and professional competence. PSNI have been purchasing this equipment since 1999 and they continue to increase the numbers of these devices in operational service on a year by year basis. The purchase of these devices has been carried out by ICS, PSNI, however the calibration, service/repair of this equipment has not been included as part of the contract. The calibration, service/repair requirements for this equipment is covered within the service level agreement between PSNI and FSNI. In Appendix I of the SLA between PSNI and FSNI, section 3.2 ‘Calibration and Repair’ it states ‘Calibration and repair work will be subcontracted to the supplier and the costs of that work will be absorbed by FSNI’. The repairs and calibrations on LTI Laser speedmeters can only be carried out by the manufacturer’s appointed agents in the UK as there are no suitable qualified technicians offering appropriate evidence of technical and professional competence for this equipment.