Belgium

Forensic science in Belgium

Belgium places its forensic institute under justice rather than the police: a State scientific establishment attached to the Ministry of Justice, working at the request of the judicial authorities — beside the federal judicial police’s own technical and scientific police, with a central laboratory and five regional ones.

Fact-checkedSafety review clearedLast updated 10 October 2026Last reviewed 10 October 2026

Facts verified: October 2026

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The Institut national de criminalistique et de criminologie is a State scientific establishment, not part of the police. The royal decree of 5 November 1971 provides that "Il est créé un établissement scientifique de l'Etat" under that name and that "L'Institut est rattaché au Ministère de la Justice". The justice ministry describes it as a federal scientific establishment with separate management, directly under the Minister of Justice.

Its missions are set by the same decree, and they begin with the judiciary: "d'analyser, à la demande des autorités judiciaires compétentes, les données matérielles rassemblées à l'occasion de la constatation des infractions" — to analyse, at the request of the competent judicial authorities, the material evidence gathered when offences are established. The decree also has it act "en tant que laboratoire de référence dans le domaine de la criminalistique" and, on terms the King sets, "d'exercer les fonctions de laboratoire central de police technique et scientifique". The justice ministry adds that it creates and maintains forensic databases and takes part in the scientific coordination of the federal police’s technical and scientific laboratories.

The police have forensic laboratories of their own, and the law places them beside the institute rather than over it. The 1998 law organising the integrated police gives the federal judicial police "la police technique et scientifique, sans préjudice des attributions de l'Institut National de Criminalistique et de Criminologie". The royal decree of 14 November 2006 assigns "les missions de police technique et scientifique" to the federal judicial police, with a central directorate whose laboratory must be accredited for fingerprint work, and laboratories in the judicial directorates "d'Anvers, de Bruxelles, de Charleroi, de Flandre Orientale et de Liège" that must be accredited for DNA-profile and fingerprint work. That is a legal requirement; whether each laboratory meets it was not established.

On the institute’s accreditation, what can be said is what its own documents state. Its page says that ISO/IEC 17025:2017 "s’applique à la majorité des activités de laboratoire", and it publishes certificate 241-TEST from the Belgian accreditation body, under EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017, whose stated period of validity runs from 16 December 2021 to 28 September 2026. That date had passed when this page was researched, and whether the accreditation was renewed was not established.

Forensic medicine is set out in the Code of Criminal Procedure rather than in either body’s texts. In a violent death, or one whose cause is unknown and suspicious, the public prosecutor "se fera assister d'un ou de deux" doctors, "qui feront leur rapport sur les causes de la mort et sur l'état du cadavre". No forensic-medicine institute is named in what was read.

Uncertainty

What we could not establish

ACCREDITATION IS NOT CLAIMED AS CURRENT. The certificate the institute publishes states a validity ending on 28 September 2026, before this page was researched; whether it was renewed was not established, and the accreditation body’s own register assembles its list in the browser and could not be read.
The federal police laboratories are required by decree to be accredited for named activities. Whether each is accredited was not established, and nothing here says it is.
The federal police’s own site answered HTTP 403 to an automated request, so its laboratories are described from the decree that organises them rather than from their own account.
How work is divided between the institute and the police laboratories in practice was not researched.
Which doctors perform forensic examinations, and under what organisation, was not researched beyond the Code’s provision.
How a defendant obtains an independent forensic examination in Belgium was not researched.
Nothing on this page says anything about what a forensic technique can establish, how well it works, or whether a court may use a result.

Sources

Arrêté royal du 5 novembre 1971 portant création et érection en établissement scientifique de l’Etat de l’Institut national de criminalistique (consolidated, Justel)
Belgium — Federal Public Service Justice (ejustice.just.fgov.be / Moniteur belge) · Legislation · 1971-11-05 · link verified 2026-10-10
SCOPE: what the forensic institute is, which ministry it is attached to, and the missions its founding decree gives it — nothing about any examination or result. The consolidated French text on Justel, shown as updated to 4 May 2007. Supports art. 1: "Il est créé un établissement scientifique de l'Etat" under the name Institut national de criminalistique et de criminologie, and "L'Institut est rattaché au Ministère de la Justice"; and art. 2, among its essential missions, "d'analyser, à la demande des autorités judiciaires compétentes, les données matérielles rassemblées à l'occasion de la constatation des infractions", to act "en tant que laboratoire de référence dans le domaine de la criminalistique", and "d'exercer les fonctions de laboratoire central de police technique et scientifique conformément aux modalités fixées par Nous".
Institut national de Criminalistique et de Criminologie (INCC) — SPF Justice
Service public fédéral Justice (Belgium) · Government publication · link verified 2026-10-10
SCOPE: the justice ministry’s description of the institute and its missions. Supports that the institute "est un établissement scientifique fédéral à gestion séparée relevant directement du ministre de la Justice" — a federal scientific establishment with separate management, directly under the Minister of Justice — and, among its missions, to "réaliser des expertises scientifiques à la demande des autorités judiciaires compétentes", to "créer et entretenir des banques de données forensiques", and to "participer à la coordination scientifique des laboratoires de police technique et scientifique (police fédérale)".
Law of 7 December 1998 organising an integrated police service, structured on two levels (consolidated, Justel)
Belgium — Federal Public Service Justice (ejustice.just.fgov.be / Moniteur belge) · Legislation · 1998-12-07 · link verified 2026-09-19
The official consolidated French text on the Justel database, fetched and text-searched. Verbatim: the title "Loi organisant un service de police intégré, structuré à deux niveaux" (Law organising an integrated police service, structured on two levels), and the operative wording that the police are "structurés à deux niveaux : le niveau fédéral et le niveau local, lesquels assurent ensemble la fonction de police intégrée" (structured on two levels — the federal level and the local level — which together provide the integrated police function). The law also modifies the earlier law on the gendarmerie, confirming that this reform merged the former forces into the integrated service. Establishes the two-level (federal + local) integrated-police structure and its statutory basis; the internal directorates of the Federal Police were NOT verified (its own website was unreachable). LATER ADDITION, read on 2026-10-10: art. 102 gives the federal judicial police "la police technique et scientifique, sans préjudice des attributions de l'Institut National de Criminalistique et de Criminologie" — the forensic police function, without prejudice to the attributions of the national forensic institute.
Arrêté royal du 14 novembre 2006 relatif à l’organisation et aux compétences de la police fédérale (consolidated, Justel)
Belgium — Federal Public Service Justice (ejustice.just.fgov.be / Moniteur belge) · Legislation · 2006-11-14 · link verified 2026-10-10
SCOPE: where the federal police’s technical and scientific police sit, and which of its laboratories must be accredited for what — a legal requirement, not a statement that any laboratory holds accreditation. The consolidated French text on Justel, shown as updated to 2 August 2021. Supports that the federal judicial police carries out "les missions de police technique et scientifique"; that it includes "la direction centrale de la police technique et scientifique, dont le laboratoire doit être accrédité" for fingerprint data under NBN EN ISO/IEC 17025; and that in the judicial directorates "d'Anvers, de Bruxelles, de Charleroi, de Flandre Orientale et de Liège" there is a technical and scientific police laboratory "qui doit être accrédité, pour ce qui concerne les activités en matière de profils ADN et de données dactyloscopiques".
Qualité & accréditation — Institut National de Criminalistique et de Criminologie
Institut National de Criminalistique et de Criminologie (INCC/NICC) · Institutional (self-description) · link verified 2026-10-10
SCOPE: the institute’s own statement about the standard it works to — relied on for what it says, not as evidence that any accreditation is current. Supports that ISO/IEC 17025:2017 "s’applique à la majorité des activités de laboratoire", and the institute’s statement that it "est accrédité pour pour la majorité des domaines d’expertise" (the repetition is the page’s own). ACCESS NOTE: this host refused an automated request on 2026-09-17 and served the page on 2026-10-10.
Certificat d’accréditation n° 241-TEST — INCC/NICC (BELAC), as published by the institute
BELAC — Belgian Accreditation Body (published by the INCC/NICC) · Institutional (self-description) · link verified 2026-10-10
SCOPE: the accreditation certificate the institute publishes, and the period it states — not whether accreditation is in force today. Supports "Certificat d'Accréditation n° 241-TEST", issued under EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017 to the Nationaal Instituut voor Criminalistiek en Criminologie / Institut national de Criminalistique et de Criminologie, with "Période de validité : 2021-12-16 - 2026-09-28". That period ended before this record was read on 2026-10-10; whether the accreditation was renewed is not established, and the certificate is copied from the institute’s site rather than read in the accreditation body’s register, which assembles its list in the browser.
Code d’instruction criminelle, article 44 (consolidated, Justel)
Belgium — Federal Public Service Justice (ejustice.just.fgov.be / Moniteur belge) · Legislation · link verified 2026-10-10
SCOPE: who is called on to examine a death that may be violent or suspicious — nothing about any procedure or case. The consolidated French text of the Code of Criminal Procedure on Justel, shown as updated to 2 April 2026. Supports art. 44: "S'il s'agit d'une mort violente ou d'une mort dont la cause soit inconnue et suspecte", the public prosecutor "se fera assister d'un ou de deux" doctors, "qui feront leur rapport sur les causes de la mort et sur l'état du cadavre". No forensic-medicine institute is named in the provision.