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Biometrics

Asked by Dr Rupa HuqLabourHome OfficeTabled Answered 8 September 2026UIN 21282

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether processes are in place to manually decouple British citizens' biometric profiles from persons of interest once a false-positive match can be established at e-gates.

Answered by Home Office

The eGates check biometric details of passengers against their passports, whilst a separate biographic check is made against watchlists of persons of interest.

Where a watchlist match is subsequently assessed as a false positive, capability to further distinguish between subjects of interest and false positive matches is restricted to a limited number of watchlist entry types. The Home Office continues to invest in improvements to identity matching and identification processes to reduce false positive matches.

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