UK Police Granted Powers to Run Facial Recognition Searches

In a quiet amendment to a new criminal justice bill, the UK government has granted police the authority to conduct facial recognition searches on a vast database containing images of all 50 million driving licence holders in the country.

Privacy campaigners argue that the single clause within the bill could effectively place every driver in a perpetual police line-up.

The legislation enables law enforcement agencies, including the National Crime Agency (NCA), to search driving licence records for a match when attempting to identify individuals from images captured on CCTV or shared on social media. Critics have expressed concern over the lack of explicit reference in the bill or its explanatory notes, accusing the government of surreptitiously introducing the significant change.