My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, for securing this debate and all who spoke in it. Let me clarify that when I referred to those who are interested and knowledgeable about LFR as “geeks”, it was meant as a compliment. Sometimes it is difficult to get people to be interested in some of the things that we do in the Home Office. I am also grateful to the noble Lord for putting on record his views on the revised code, which came into force on 12 January of this year. I understand that it was published in full, and there is more detail in accompanying documents, including the College of Policing guidance and ICO guidance.
As I think the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, said, the code was established in 2013 during the coalition Government under PoFA—the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012—to provide guidance to local authorities and the police on the appropriate use of surveillance camera systems.
Surveillance in schools is not really for the surveillance camera code of practice. Private use, which the noble Lord also talked about, is of course a DCMS matter. I am not trying to pass the buck, but it is not unusual for people to get those mixed up. In fact, that goes to the heart of what the Government are trying to do—namely, to try to simplify the landscape, which is all too often far too complex.
The principles in the code enable the police and local authorities to operate surveillance cameras in a way that complies with the breadth of relevant law in this area. Because the code is principles-based rather than technology-specific, it has remained largely up to date despite the pace of technological advancement in this area. Therefore, the changes do not increase the scope of the code or, indeed, its intended impact.
There have been a number of legislative developments and a key court ruling since the code was first published, which noble Lords referred to. The reason for updating the code was to reflect those changes, while we also took the opportunity to make the text easier for users to follow at the same time.
The consultees were mainly among policing and commissioners, including the Information Commissioner’s Office. The Surveillance Camera Commissioner published the draft, so it was in the public domain, and civil society groups commented on it, including the NPCC.
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It is fair to say that the public expect the police to use technologies such as surveillance cameras to keep them safe. The Government and the police have a joint responsibility to ensure that they do so appropriately, while maintaining public trust—I think the noble Lord, Lord Anderson, talked about public trust. There are now real opportunities to make use of facial recognition to improve public safety. As has been mentioned, generations of police officers have used photographs of people to identify suspects and, more recently, CCTV images have been a vital tool in investigations. There are so many examples where suspect images have been matched to wanted known individuals, ensuring that they cannot evade justice when they cross force boundaries. What is changing is the ability to use computers to match images with increasing confidence and at speed, as well as combining technologies such as surveillance cameras and facial recognition to greater effect.
I shall mention a few examples. LFR trials have resulted in 70 arrests, including for suspected rape, robbery and violence, false imprisonment, breach of a non-molestation order and assault on the police. At a Cardiff concert there were no reported mobile phone thefts when South Wales Police used LFR, where similar concerts in other parts of the UK resulted in more than 220 thefts. South Wales Police produced around 100 identifications a month through retrospective facial recognition, thereby reducing identification time from 14 days to merely hours, which can be critical when dangerous individuals are at large.
Noble Lords talked about lawfulness and I will refer, as noble Lords have done, to the Bridges case. He claimed that his privacy rights were breached on two occasions when he passed in front of cameras during South Wales Police’s LFR trials. The Court of Appeal found several things: that there was a sufficient legislative framework to cover policing use of LFR but that the police had too much discretion on the who and where questions. The College of Policing national guidance is addressing those, to provide consistency. South Wales Police failed to take reasonable steps to demonstrate the potential for bias in facial matching algorithms, although the court found no evidence of it.
The court also helpfully confirmed—which goes to the question of the noble Lord, Lord Rosser—that the police have common law powers to use LFR and, by implication, other novel technologies. The Data Protection Act is relevant but under legislation for operating “in accordance with law”, published police policies constitute law for these purposes, and the use of LFR was proportionate. Whether something is proportionate is a judgment, not a simple mathematical calculation—for example, by multiplying the privacy impact on a person bringing a claim by the total number of people impacted. Also in answer to the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, LFR deletes the biometrics of those not matched instantaneously.
The noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, and others asked about the accuracy of LFR. The accuracy of any technique will depend on the technology and how it is used. Facial recognition systems are probabilistic; they suggest possible matches, not definite ones. The technology is increasingly becoming more accurate.
There will always be false alerts and—here is the crucial point—that is why a human being always takes the final decision to engage with an individual matched by the technology. On bias, it is very important that the police comply with the public sector equality duty to maintain police confidence. South Wales Police and the Met have found no evidence of bias in their algorithms and, as I said, a human operator always takes that final decision.
I should make the point that the US National Institute of Standards and Technology found that the NEC had
“provided an algorithm for which the false positive differential was undetectable”,
and that the algorithm
“is on many measures, the most accurate”
the NIST has evaluated. It was developed using the same technology and training data set as the algorithm used by South Wales Police and the Met. South Wales Police have since upgraded to an even more accurate algorithm. I hope I have demonstrated both the comprehensive legal framework and the common law powers.
The noble Lord, Lord Alton, made a very interesting point about systems that might be brought in that might raise ethical consideration for the operation of those systems. The FCDO and the Cabinet Office will issue new guidance to enable buyers to more effectively exercise their discretion to exclude suppliers linked with modern slavery and human rights violations. The public procurement Bill will further strengthen the ability of public sector bodies to disqualify suppliers from bidding for contracts where they have a history of misconduct, including forced labour and modern slavery. But I thank him for bringing the issue, which is of great concern to many people, to noble Lords’ attention.
The Human Rights Act, the Equality Act and the Data Protection Act are all parts of the consideration that the police must give when exercising their new powers. The code actually references all those pieces of legislation. The police are also subject to regulation, particularly through the Information Commissioner’s Office, a range of oversight bodies and other bodies providing guidance and support. We helped the police appoint a chief scientific adviser, and forces have access to further support from their own ethics committees, the Police Digital Service and the College of Policing.
We have been working with police to clarify the circumstances in which they can use live facial recognition and the categories of people they can look for. The College of Policing is planning to publish that national guidance in due course. It is an important part of our democratic process that people can raise and debate legitimate concerns about police use of new technologies, including in Parliament. I do welcome the opportunity, on the noble Lord’s Motion, for us to be able to do so today. The updated surveillance camera code references the Bridges judgment and requires the police to comply with it. The more detailed guidance the court called for will be set out in the College of Policing’s national guidance.
I will finish by saying the police do have a duty to make use of technologies to keep the public safe, and the Government are committed to empowering them
to do so while maintaining public trust. Updating the code to reflect the latest legal position is just one of the steps we are taking to achieve those important aims.