Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to implement the recommendation of the Surveillance Camera Commissioner for England and Wales for there to be government inspections of the police’s use of facial recognition technology.

The government is committed to empowering the police to safely use new technologies such as automatic facial recognition within a strict legal framework. The government welcomes constructive proposals for improvements to the framework, while noting that the Information Commissioner conducted an investigation last year under the existing regime.