Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
Approval of a new collection for the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory Division
OMB Control # 1110-xxxx
Part A. Justification
Necessity of Information:
The results of this survey will inform a five year forensic discipline portfolio projection for the Laboratory Division. The Laboratory Division is using this survey as a tool to answer questions about what their specific forensic science priorities are and how they value each forensic discipline; whether the Laboratory Division is servicing these specific needs; what they perceive as strengths and weaknesses of the FBI Laboratory, and if they’ve identified trends in criminal investigations that a laboratory should be addressing
2. Needs and Uses:
The survey will be used to collect data on the number of requests for various forensic science services in state, local and federal forensic science laboratories. In addition, the survey will collect information on the most important factors that impact the level of satisfaction with a forensic science laboratory.
3. Use of Technology:
The survey is a fillable pdf document that will be disseminated via e-mail to the target audience. Responses will be returned via e-mail to the FBI Laboratory.
4. Efforts to Identify Duplication:
The information collected will be used to inform a five year forensic discipline portfolio projection for the FBI Laboratory. There are no other similar efforts within the FBI.
5. Methods to Minimize Burden on Small Businesses:
This information will have no significant impact on small entities. Small businesses will not be affected by this collection.
6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection:
If this collection is not conducted, the FBI Laboratory will not be able to obtain the information necessary to conduct this analysis from a large percentage of its customer base, namely state and local law enforcement agencies.
7. Special Circumstances Influencing Collection:
This is intended to be a one-time collection to support the forensic discipline portfolio analysis.
8. Public Comments and Consultations:
The FBI consults with its customers on an individual basis as needed. Additionally, the 30 and 60-day Notices of Information Collection was published in the Federal Register and no comments were received.
9. Payment of Gift to Claimants:
The FBI does not provide any payment or gift to respondents.
10. Assurance of Confidentiality:
Information requested in this collection may be considered confidential personal information. Its release is governed by law, regulations, and agency procedures.
11. Justification for Sensitive Questions:
This collection does not include questions of a sensitive nature.
12. Estimate of Hour Burden:
Number of respondents 1000
Frequency of response one-time
Total annual responses 1000
Minutes per response 30 minutes
Annual hour burden 500 hours
13. Estimate of Cost Burden:
Respondents will not incur any costs other than their time to respond. Respondents will not incur any capital, start up, or system maintenance costs associated with this information collection.
14. Estimated Annualized Costs to Federal Government:
Note: The surveys are received and processed by the same personnel. Therefore, the associated costs were added together on one line.
Personnel salaries for analysis
of incoming information: 500 hours x $55/hr (GS 14) = $27,500
Total Cost: $27,500
15. Reasons for Change in Burden:
The survey will be used to collect data on the number of requests for various forensic science services in state, local and federal forensic science laboratories.
16. Plans for Publication:
There are no plans to publish the information collected.
17. Expiration Date Approval:
Due to the administrative burdens related to replacing expired forms when no information on those forms has been changed, the FBI is requesting approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collected.
18. Exceptions to the Certification Statement:
There are no exceptions to the certification statement.
Part B. Statistical Methods
The FBI does not employ statistical methods in this information collection.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | mnpasquale |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-21 |