Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what guidance the Government has provided on the capture, manipulation and storage of (a) facial images and (b) associated data in facial recognition systems; and what regulations cover such capture, manipulation and storage.

The Information Commissioner is the UK's independent authority responsible for administering and enforcing information rights and provides guidance and advice to individuals and organisations on, among other things, the protection of individual's data.

The ICO advises organisations to conduct a 'privacy impact assessment' (PIA) where there is a need to meet individuals expectations of privacy, particularly where the organisation is using technology that may be perceived as being privacy intrusive, including the use of facial recognition technology. The ICO has published a code of practice on PIAs which can be found on its website at the following link: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1595/pia-code-of-practice.pdf