Facial recognition vans to be rolled out across police forces in England

Published

3 months ago

August 13, 2025

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The police’s use of facial recognition technology is to be significantly expanded in an attempt to catch more offenders, ministers have announced.

Under the plans, 10 live facial recognition (LFR) vans will be used by seven forces across England to help identify “sex offenders or people wanted for the most serious crimes”, according to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

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The tech, which has been trialled in London and south Wales, will be subject to strict rules, the Home Office said, but human rights groups have warned it is “dangerous and discriminatory”.

Amnesty International UK said the plans should be “immediately scrapped”, with facial recognition proven to be “discriminatory against communities of colour”.

“It has been known to lead to misidentification and the risk of wrongful arrest,” said Alba Kapoor, the charity’s racial justice lead, “and it’s also known to be less accurate in scanning the faces of people of colour.”

The Home Office said the LFR vans will only be deployed when there is “specific intelligence”, and will be operated by trained officers who will check every match made by the cameras.

The vehicles will also only be used against bespoke watch lists, compiled for each use under guidelines set by the College of Policing.

The vans will be operated by police forces in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey and Sussex (jointly), and Thames Valley and Hampshire (jointly).

‘The most serious offenders’

Ms Cooper has said ministers are focused on making sure “there are proper safeguards in place”.

As part of the plans, the home secretary has announced she will be launching a consultation on how and when the cameras should be used, and with what safeguards, which the government will use to draw up a new legal framework for the use of the cameras.

Ms Cooper said the tech had been used in London and South Wales “in a targeted way”, and helped catch “the most serious offenders, including people wanted for violent assaults or for sex offences”.

According to the Metropolitan Police, the tech has led to 580 arrests for offences such as rape, domestic crime and knife crime in the space of 12 months.

The government has pointed to independent testing by the National Physical Laboratory, which it said found the tech was “accurate” and showed “no bias for ethnicity, age, or gender”.

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Liberty has welcomed the government’s decision to create a statutory framework for using facial recognition, but said that should be in place before the tech is rolled out.

“There’s no reasonable excuse to be putting even more cameras on our streets before the public have had their say and legislation is brought in to protect all of us,” said a statement.

The civil liberties charity cited how more than 1.6 million people have had their faces scanned in South Wales, mostly on football match days in Cardiff city centre.

But Lindsey Chiswick, from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), has said the expansion “is an excellent opportunity for policing”, and will help officers locate suspects “quickly and accurately”.

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David Lammy blames ‘human error’ for release of migrant sex offender – as confirms independent investigation

Published

5 hours ago

October 28, 2025

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David Lammy blames 'human error' for release of migrant sex offender - as confirms independent investigation

David Lammy has confirmed there will be an independent investigation into the accidental release of a migrant jailed for sex offences, as he blamed “human error” for the incident.

The deputy prime minister and justice secretary told MPs he was “livid” on behalf of Hadush Kebatu’s victims and he would be deported back to Ethiopia “as quickly as possible”.

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Kebatu, who was found guilty in September of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, was freed in error from HMP Chelmsford in Essex on Friday instead of being handed over to immigration officials for deportation.

His accidental release sparked widespread alarm and a manhunt that resulted in him being found and arrested by the Metropolitan Police in the Finsbury Park area of London at around 8.30am on Sunday.

The incident has sparked questions over how the man, whose crimes sparked protests in Epping over the use of asylum hotels, was able to be freed.

Addressing MPs in the House of Commons, Mr Lammy said the mistake should not have happened as he sought to lay part of the blame on to the Conservatives over the state of the prison system over the past 14 years.

He said “there must and there will be accountability” for the mistaken release of Kebatu from prison.

“I’ve been clear from the outset that a mistake of this nature is unacceptable,” he said.

“We must get to the bottom of what happened and take immediate action to try and prevent similar releases in error to protect the public from harm.”

Mr Lammy said he ordered an “urgent review” into the checks that take place when an offender is released from prison, and new safeguards have been added that amount to the “strongest release checks that have ever been in place”.

The justice secretary said the investigation would be led by former Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Dame Lynne Owens, who also used to lead the National Crime Agency.

He also said the investigation would have the same status as high-profile probes into other prison incidents, including the attack on three prison officers at HMP Franklin in April of this year and the escape of Daniel Khalife from HMP Wandsworth in 2023.

‘Calamity Lammy’

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick referred to a report by Sky News which detailed how a witness present at the prison observed Kebatu appearing “confused” upon his release.

The witness said Kebatu had in fact tried to go back into the prison several times, but was instead guided to Chelmsford station, where he caught a train to London.

Mr Jenrick claimed the case was proof “the only illegal migrants this government are stopping are those that actually want to leave the UK”.

“Dear oh dear,” he said. “Where to begin? This justice secretary could not deport the only small boat migrant who wanted – no – who tried to be deported.

“Having been mistakenly released, Hadush Kebatu came back to prison asking to be deported not once, not twice, but five times, but he was turned away.”

He went on: “The only illegal migrants this government are stopping are those that actually want to leave the UK.

“His officials, briefing the press, called it the mother of all – yeah, they’re not wrong, are they?”

Mr Jenrick, who served as immigration minister under the previous Conservative government, branded his opposite number “calamity Lammy”.

“It’s a national embarrassment and today the justice secretary feigns anger at what happened.”

Continuing with his attack, Mr Jenrick asked Mr Lammy whether he would resign if Kebatu was not deported “by the end of the week” – to which he received no reply.

But asked later by an MP whether he was considering his position, Mr Lammy replied: “A ridiculous question, the answer is no.”

The new checks announced by Mr Lammy on Monday involve five pages of instructions and require more senior prison staff to sign off a release, according to documents obtained by Sky News.

The instructions are effective from Monday.