Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has issued to (a) police forces and (b) local authorities on the use of facial recognition cameras in public places.

When using facial recognition technology, all police forces and local authorities must comply with data protection, equalities and human rights laws. They must also comply with the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice.

Police forces are also required to comply with any published policing policies and in the case of live facial recognition, follow the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice.

The government wants to ensure that facial recognition operates on a firm footing, providing maximum confidence to both the public and the police on the use of these tools. To that end, I have been listening carefully to stakeholders and partners and have held a series of roundtables with policing, civil society groups, regulators and others. Formal evaluation work on the impact of the technology is also underway, and we intend to set out our plans in the coming months.