Police: Biometrics
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has been made of the (a) effectiveness of the legal and regulatory framework and (b) use and coverage of facial recognition technology by police forces in England.
Answered by Sarah Jones
The Government supports the wider adoption of facial recognition technology across all police forces.
Although there is a legal basis for police use of facial recognition, we want to bring forward a new bespoke legal framework, to build public trust and enable the wider, responsible use of facial recognition across police forces. To help shape this, the Home Office launched a public consultation on 04/12/2025 on the use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies. The consultation responses we receive will inform the development of this new bespoke framework.
In terms of existing coverage, retrospective facial recognition is already used by all UK police forces. There are over 25,000 searches carried out each month on the Police National Database (PND) to help identify suspects after an incident or event.
Live facial recognition is used on a regular basis by some forces and is available to all forces via a small national capability made up of 10 mobile units.
The Home Office invested £12.6 million in facial recognition last year, with £2.8 million spent on national live facial recognition capabilities
This year, £6.6 million is being spent supporting the adoption, evaluation, and responsible rollout of facial recognition technology. This includes £3.9 million for the development of a new, national facial matching service.
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