Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment the Government has made of the potential for machine-learning algorithms to aid in police investigations.

The Home Office has not undertaken a specific assessment of the potential for machine-learning algorithms to aid police investigations. This is an operational matter for policing. We are however, supporting policing to test how new and emerging technologies can be used across all aspects of crime and policing, including within police investigations.

Most notably, through the Police Transformation Fund, we are investing in a number of projects. For example, we are funding the Digital Intelligence and Investigation (DII) Programme. As well as mapping forces current DII capabilities, the Programme is engaging experts in the technology sector to propose technical solutions, both existing and for development, which can aid policing in the management, collation and analysis of data at each stage of the investigative process.