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Question follow-through · 97805

Police: Biometrics

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the findings of the report by the National Physical Laboratory, published on 4 December 2025, on the use of facial reco

answeredHome Office

About this written question

A written question asks a government minister for information in writing. Parliament publishes the question and any answer.

Answering body
Home Office
Tabled
8 Dec 2025
Target answer date
15 Dec 2025
Answer
15 Dec 2025 · 7 calendar days after tabling

Elapsed calendar days describe the record timeline, not whether Parliament considers an answer on time.

More questions by this MP on Justice and policing

Shared topic keywords suggest a connection; they do not establish a follow-up.

Votes on this topic

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Recorded timeline

  1. 8 Dec 2025

    Question tabled

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the findings of the report by the National Physical Laboratory, published on 4 December 2025, on the use of facial reco

  2. 15 Dec 2025

    Target answer date

    Date supplied by the official written-questions record.

  3. 15 Dec 2025

    Answer published

    The Government has already taken action to address the findings of the National Physical Laboratory’s report on the algorithm used for retrospective facial recognition within the Police National Database.The Home Office commissioned the report as the prov...

Open official record

Official data retrieved 28 Sept 2026.

Later records

Possible follow-up questions

Strong links require the same MP, department and exact heading. Other same-department questions are shown as unreviewed candidates, not as confirmed follow-ups. No debate link is asserted unless a stable source relationship exists.

Strong linkSame MP, department and exact heading

Police: Biometrics

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to UIN 97805 answered on 15 December 2025, when the Home Office first learned of potential bias in the current PND facial search algorithm.

Strong linkSame MP, department and exact heading

Police: Biometrics

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to UIN 97805 answered on 15 December 2025, whether estimates have been made of the number of potential misidentifications made by police as a result of potential bias in the PND facial search

Strong linkSame MP, department and exact heading

Police: Biometrics

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2025 to Question 97805 on Police: Biometrics, what the (a) planned timescales and (b) terms of reference are for the two HMICFRS reviews referred to.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Lord Mandelson

5 Feb 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether (a) she or (b) any members of her Department met or corresponded with Lord Mandelson on Palantir.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Biometrics: Arrests

10 Mar 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of people who may have been wrongly arrested or questioned by police as a result of incorrect facial recognition matches produced by the Cognitec FaceVACS-DBSc

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Biometrics: Arrests

10 Mar 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to determine the number of people who may have been wrongly arrested or questioned by police as a result of incorrect facial recognition matches produced by the Cognitec FaceV

Strong linkSame MP, department and exact heading

Police: Biometrics

10 Mar 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Idemia facial recognition algorithm for Home Office strategic facial matching will be rolled out across police forces.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Biometrics: Police National Database

10 Mar 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance is in place relating to the thresholds at which retrospective facial recognition searches of the Police National Database may be operated.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Biometrics: Ethnic Groups

10 Mar 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the safeguards in place to mitigate racial and other bias in the use of retrospective facial recognition technology.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Immigration: Fees and Charges

24 Mar 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether an impact assessment into the policy paper on Home Office immigration and nationality fees, due to increase from 8 April 2026, has been conducted.

Strong linkSame MP, department and exact heading

Police: Biometrics

10 Apr 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the cost-effectiveness of police use of live facial recognition technology in comparison to traditional policing methods.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Surveillance

10 Apr 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the proportionality of deploying mass surveillance technology to address low level offences.