Facial recognition more likely to wrongly flag black and Asian people

Ministers are facing calls for stronger safeguards on the use of facial recognition technology after the Home Office admitted it was more likely to incorrectly identify black and Asian people than white people on some settings.

- Rajeev Syal Home affairs editor

After testing by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) within the police national database, the Home Office said it was “more likely to incorrectly include some demographic groups in its search results”.

Police and crime commissioners said publication of the NPL’s finding “sheds light on a concerning inbuilt bias” and urged caution over plans for a national expansion.

The findings were released on Thursday, hours after Sarah Jones, the policing minister, described the technology as the “biggest breakthrough since DNA matching”.