Report Summary
The Chair of the Scottish Police Authority launched a national conversation on the potential use of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) in Scotland in June 2024. This paper aims to provide a summary of the available information on the use of LFR in a policing context.
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Appendix B: UK Government views on LFR
In October 2023, then Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire wrote to Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners to note the support of the UK Government with regards to the use of LFR. To support this stance, the Minister noted that recent LFR deployments “led to arrests that would otherwise have been impossible” as “no number of officers could have picked those people out of a crowd”.
Furthermore, the UK government committed to investing £55 million to introduce LFR in policing in England and Wales. This investment is in pursuit of saving 38 million hours in police time overall by investing in technology. Following a UK Parliament debate on the use of LFR in November 2024, the policing minister highlighted that LFR could be “transformational” for policing, but also recognised the impact of LFR on human rights and individual privacy.
