Biometrics: Hare Coursing
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the news story entitled Live Facial Recognition technology to catch high-harm offenders, published on 13 August 2025, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of using live facial recognition vans to identify people involved with hare-coursing.
Answered by Sarah Jones
The Government is committed to equipping police forces with the tools they need to tackle serious crimes, locate offenders and bring them to justice.
As part of this commitment, the Home Office has funded the roll-out of ten live facial recognition (LFR) vans to seven host police forces, with access available to all forces across the country.
Hare coursing is a serious criminal offence that causes harm to rural communities. Police forces across the UK have launched Operation Galileo, a national initiative aimed at tackling hare coursing through increased patrols, surveillance and tougher legal penalties. The Government takes this issue very seriously and will continue to support police efforts to tackle it.
While LFR technology has proven effective in locating individuals wanted for high harm offences, the government has made no formal assessment regarding its potential use in addressing hare coursing. LFR deployment decisions rest with individual police forces, and any future consideration of its use must be intelligence-led and compliant with the legal framework.
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