Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of whether legislation regulating the use of facial recognition technology is compatible with the General Data Protection Regulation.

The High Court found that there is a clear and sufficient legal framework for police use of live facial recognition (LFR) in England & Wales. This framework, which includes the common law powers available to a constable for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime, Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018, the Human Rights Act and the Surveillance Camera Code, will not change as a result of the UK leaving the EU.

Private sector use of LFR is governed by the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation. These laws impose strict obligations on both controllers and processors who handle the images obtained via the use of live facial recognition technology.