Metropolitan Police: Live Facial Recognition

Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row Excerpts

Monday 16th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, there were several points in that question. First, the High Court has said that the police are operating within the legal framework. Secondly, this technology would not be used in relation to overdue parking tickets. To quote the Metropolitan Police, its use of this technology targets

“those wanted for imprisonable offences, with a focus on serious crime, with a particular regard to knife and gun crime, child sexual exploitation and terrorism”.

[Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row (Con)]

My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister agree that there is a lot of misinformation on this subject in the public domain? Can she confirm to the House that there is no intention to record images of members of the ordinary public?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I can absolutely confirm that LFR is deployed against a watchlist, which is not made up of every member of the public but of those people I have just listed, for the safety of the public.