Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that schools offer pupils alternatives to biometric identification to access services and education.

Advice for schools and colleges that wish to use personal information about pupils, for the purposes of using automated biometric recognition systems, is set out in the department’s non-statutory guidance, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/692116/Protection_of_Biometric_Information.pdf. The guidance covers legal duties, under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, in relation to the processing of biometric information in schools. It also covers the data protection regime.

The guidance is clear that reasonable alternative arrangements must be provided for pupils who do not use automated biometric recognition systems. These alternative arrangements should ensure that pupils do not suffer any disadvantage or difficulty in accessing services or premises. Likewise, such arrangements should not place any additional burden on parents whose children are not participating in such a system.

The department has no plans to undertake any assessment of the types of biometric data of pupils collected in state schools. The decision to use biometric technology rests entirely with individual schools, who are legally responsible for any data they gather and use, according to the UK General Data Protection Regulation, Protection of Freedoms Act and Data Protection Act. As such, the department believes that if a school wishes to introduce biometric technology, it is rightly a decision for an individual school to make. This decision should be taken based on its own operational needs, in consultation with its staff, pupils, parents and carers and having regard to, amongst other things, the relevant data protection law.