The Government has announced plans to change the law to bring in tougher protections around police use of facial recognition technology, vowing that it will be used “fairly and safely”.
The move follows concerns raised by human rights groups about people having their faces scanned without consent and cases of mistaken identity. Campaigners had called on ministers to introduce safeguards before use of the technology is expanded.
Next month, permanent live facial recognition (LFR) cameras are set to be placed on London's Oxford Street to check people's faces against a watchlist of wanted suspects, capturing thousands of Christmas shoppers.
New watchdog and legal safeguards
The Home Office said thousands of dangerous criminals are caught every year thanks to the technology, but acknowledged that its use must be “fair, safe and proportionate”.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “Facial recognition technology has been the biggest breakthrough for catching criminals since DNA matching, already helping police take thousands of dangerous criminals off our streets.”
She added: “The benefits are clear, but we must ensure that its use is fair, safe and proportionate.”
A new watchdog will oversee police use of the technology, potentially with the power to ban forces from using the cameras if they fail to meet standards, the Home Office said.
Consultation response and concerns
Laws will be introduced to Parliament under the Police Reform Bill to make sure police use of facial recognition is “intelligence-led and proportionate”, so it is only used when officers believe wanted people could be present in a certain area.
Forces will also be told the cameras must be “rigorously and independently tested against bias or discrimination of age, gender or race”, government officials added. The move is in response to a public consultation on the plans.
Liberty welcomed the announcement as a “step in the right direction” but added: “Now that the Government has recognised stronger legislation is needed, it must now finally hit pause on the rapid rollout of facial recognition technology until this is in place with the robust transparency, oversight and safeguards needed to protect us all.”
Big Brother Watch, which describes use of live facial recognition for mass surveillance as “Orwellian”, said: “The public have spoken loud and clear in the consultation, raising the alarm that facial recognition erodes our freedoms and privacy and is turning Britain into a surveillance state. It is totally inadequate for the Home Office to respond with promises of codes of practice that offer little legal accountability if breached.”
Track record of arrests
Static live facial recognition cameras used during a trial in Croydon between October 2025 and March 2026 led to 173 arrests, including suspects wanted for rape, kidnap and sexual assault.
Since January last year, the Metropolitan Police reported 2,631 arrests following the use of live facial recognition. It also arrested more than 100 registered sex offenders found in breach of their conditions, the Government said.
Facial recognition cameras have been used across Greater Manchester over the last year, particularly in Piccadilly Gardens where it was deployed for the first time in November last year.
Published independent testing by the National Physical Laboratory confirms the “algorithm shows no statistically significant demographic differential bias in operational performance”, according to the Home Office.
Former head of Counter Terrorism Policing, Neil Basu, said: “Like all new technologies, live facial recognition had a difficult start and the consultation was absolutely necessary to ensure this new technology was acceptable to the wider public.”
He added: “With a real police officer making the final decision a human one, and with the proper legal safeguards and independent oversight in place, I have no doubt LFR will catch many more criminals and make us all much safer.”
