Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) accuracy, and (b) ability of facial recognition technology used at airports.to distinguish between identical twins and other siblings of similar appearance.

Facial recognition technology employed by Border Force at airports is regularly assessed to ensure that it is operating within operational parameters agreed by ministers. The technology employs a matching algorithm to distinguish between individuals to confirm identity. There has been no specific research undertaken by Border Force or Home Office Biometrics into the ability of facial recognition algorithms to distinguish between identical twins or sib-lings who look very alike.