Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent discussions with (a) retailers and (b) trade unions on the risk of misidentifications by private facial recognition systems.

The Home Office is not responsible for facial recognition systems procured and operated by independent retailers.

In terms of police use of facial recognition systems, the Home Office supports forces in developing systems, guidance and training to minimise the possibility of misidentification and the consequences of it. Additionally, there are measures in place to mitigate against facial recognition misidentifications by the police. Facial recognition algorithms provided by or procured with Home Office funding for police use are required to be independently tested for equitability frt-equitability-study_mar2023.pdf.

The government is taking the time to make sure that police use of facial recognition operates on a firm footing, including keeping the legal framework under review. To that end, I am listening carefully to stakeholders and partners and have been holding a series of roundtables with policing, civil society groups, regulators and others.

It is important to note that any matches made through facial recognition technologies will always be assessed by a police officer and investigated before an arrest is made; no arrest would ever be made based solely on a facial match made by a computer.