Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 1 October 2025 (HL10624), who is engaged or to be engaged in testing and policy development relating to facial estimation technology for assessing the age of asylum seekers; whether the accuracy of the technology is to be evaluated against other methods and the evaluation published; whether individuals subject to its use will be given full details without having to request them; and what other scientific and technological methods and artificial intelligence tools are being tested or considered for use in age assessment.

As part of the Government's commitment to improve the robustness of the age assessment process, the Home Office is currently exploring the use of Facial Age Estimation technology. Further testing and analysis of Facial Age Estimation technology has been commissioned by the department, with the intention of integrating Facial Age Estimation into the current age assessment process over the course of 2026, subject to the results of the further testing and assurance. The Home Office's Biometrics, Scientific, Insights and Analysis teams and Policy teams are engaged in testing and policy development of the facial age estimation technology. The Home Office will provide further updates regarding the testing in due course.

If and when this technology is used in live cases, full information and guidance will be available to those undergoing FAE as well as to staff involved in the process.

The Home Office continues to monitor new and emerging scientific and technological techniques and wider reform of the age assessment system.