Hodge said this appeared to be a case where the usual process was “abandoned” and there was some “curiosity” about why this path was taken. But the eventual decision to proceed with the change involved a “trade off” for police between test turnaround times and the likelihood a valuable result.

Rika was called as the first witness on Monday and told the inquiry her perception of management response to feedback was that it was deemed a “nuisance” if it strayed from their agenda.

“That is because of my view,the culture of our lab at that time was quite toxic,” Rika said. She detailed one “traumatic” incident where a staff member slammed their fists on a table during a meeting and management “isolated” her and the other senior scientist after they raised issue with it.

The functioning and decision-making of FSS are among the issues for Sofronoff to consider,Hodge said,along with how and when the issues arose internally — including changes to revert the process this year — the wording of the statements,and whether the lab’s process was best practice.

On Monday,the inquiry heard that staff raised concern about the potential for the statements to cause useful DNA profiles to be missed on the day they were told of the change in 2018,and on multiple occasions after.

Hodge outlined an apparent lack of notice given to police officials overseeing that agency’s side of the forensic process when changes were made this year as details of the lab issues emerged.

He also clarified that an initial decision by health authorities in June expected to reinstate pre-2018 processes including concentrating samples before automatically testing them,only properly changed last month,stemmed from inaccurate advice to acting director-general Shaun Drummond.

The advice from within the department,in which the lab operates,stated the preferred of the two options involved not concentrating the samples.

This was then clarified after a meeting between managing scientist Catherine Allen and department lawyers,in which she described an “unintended human error”.

Allen was among two senior staff members — along with Howes — reported to have been stood down by Drummond last week after the interim report,despite no findings being made against any individual.

Together union state secretary Alex Scott,whose organisation represents workers in the lab,has described the decision as a “media reaction” rather than addressinglong-running funding issues.

The Morning Edition newsletter is your guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories,analysis and insights.Sign up here.