Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total cost of the Metropolitan Police’s recent trial of automated facial recognition technology, including preparatory work, and encompassing equipment and manpower costs; and how many staff were required for a typical deployment during the trial, broken down by role.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) are operationally independent of government.

They have disclosed the following information:

Costs

The MPS have records of Live Facial Recognition software and associated hardware at a current total cost of £240,000.

The MPS have no record of other costs relating to preparatory work or associated manpower.

Outcomes

During their trials ten individuals on the system’s watchlist were correctly identified, resulting in eight arrests (these figures discount alerts generated by test subjects).

The offences for which they were arrested were: false imprisonment; breach of non-molestation order; two counts of rape; discharge of firearm; breach of restraining order and harassment; domestic assault and theft; robbery and assault on police.

Two of these arrests have resulted in convictions so far (breach of non-molestation order and assault on police).