EWI welcomes government action on unregulated expert witnesses

The EWI has long held concerns about expert witnesses without appropriate qualifications and experience, and subject to the relevant regulatory oversight, providing written and oral evidence in court processes.

In a debate on 23 April in the House of Lords on the Victims and Prisoners Bill, Lord Bellamy, a Minister of Justice, noted the need for “an across-the-board solution, worked out through the Family Procedure Rule Committee, to implement changes that would ensure that, where a psychologist undertakes any psychological assessment in private law children proceedings, they are suitably regulated and that that broader work encapsulates any other problems that arise in relation to unregulated experts.” We welcome Lord Bellamy’s statement and look forward to the Family Procedure Rule Committee’s work on this important area. 

His Lordship had earlier noted that “[t]his problem probably extends to healthcare generally.” We think that this problem extends to a great many areas of expert witness work. All expert witnesses should have the qualifications and experience to be experts in their field and be subject to the relevant regulatory oversight.

All members of the Expert Witness Institute have been vetted to ensure they have the appropriate professional qualifications, experience, and regulatory oversight, as well as proven proficiency in the core competencies of an expert witness.