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MPs gathered in Westminster to debate the issue of live facial recognition, where the Policing Minister acknowledged the absence of a single law to give the police the power to use the technology. But having only served less than five months in office, she said the government wanted to take time to listen to find a way that the use of live facial recognition “secures and maintains public confidence.”
Dame Diana Johnson told MPs that she is committed to a “programme of engagement” to inform the government’s thinking about how policing uses live facial recognition (LFR) as part of its operations and how to achieve the balance of privacy and safety using legislation. Currently LFR is governed through College of Policing guidance and existing data and privacy laws.
Citing the potential of LFR to contribute to the government’s safer streets mission, the Minister said: “it could make our streets safer for us all, particularly for women and girls, by helping the police to identify wanted people quickly and accurately.” She added that it could also save police time and increase efficiency.
“We particularly need to consider how much support the police may require from Government and Parliament to set and manage the rules for using technologies such as facial recognition. We must think about how we protect the public from potential misuse of those technologies, and we need to consider how the application of the rules and regulations is scrutinised.”
Dame Diana Johnson MP, Policing Minister.
The College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice defines LFR as a real-time deployment of facial recognition technology, which compares a live camera feed (or multiple feeds) of faces against a predetermined watchlist, in order to locate persons of interest by generating an alert when a possible match is found.
Sir John Whittingdale, Conservative MP for Maldon, secured the 13 November debate on the police’s use of LFR technology. He said the debate was “somewhat overdue.” He is an Essex MP and his force has recently started to use LFR, with 25 deployments so far resulting in 26 arrests and 26 other positive disposals. Essex, along with South Wales and the Met Police currently have this technology deployed for operational use.
He said that one of the reasons for calling for this debate was to seek assurances about the technology is being used and that it does not disproportionately misidentify Black people and people from other communities.
MPs were concerned about the lack of a legal framework for LFR which has been in use since 2017, citing the views of both Big Brother Watch and Liberty who have campaigned against its use.
The Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, Sian Berry, called for a debate on primary legislation to deal with “this unlawful grey area” saying that the issue is “urgent.” Iqbal Mohamed, Independent MP for Dewsbury and Batley said: “The legal framework needs to be strengthened to ensure that the use of technology is transparent, accountable and subject to rigorous oversight.”
Chris Philp, former Policing Minister and now shadow Home Secretary, spoke in the debate and reminded MPs about the work of the National Physical Laboratory in testing the algorithms contained in the LFR technology. He said that the result of that work was to confirm a particular setting (0.6) is the level where “there was no statistically significant difference in the facial recognition technology’s accuracy across” different demographic groups.
He urged the Policing Minister, “not to halt the use of the technology” and urged her “to continue supporting the police to roll it out.”
“At the heart of the issue is the fact that we are dealing with a powerful technology that has the potential to be transformational for policing. However, some have very legitimate concerns about it, including misidentification, misuse and the effect on human rights and individual privacy. I agree wholeheartedly that we need a proper, informed debate on the subject, both in this House and with the public.”
Dame Diana Johnson MP, Policing Minister.
The Minister said that she will hold a series of roundtables before the end of the year with various groups, including regulators and civil society groups. In the meantime she confirmed that funding is still being provided to police forces for the roll-out of LFR with evaluation activity underway.
The full debate can be found on House of Commons Hansard for 13 November 2024.
