Legal safeguards vital if facial recognition tech is rolled out by Police Scotland
Scotland could be the first nation to pass primary legislation around live facial recognition
A year has passed since the conclusion of what Police Scotland described as a “national conversation” about its potential use of live facial recognition (LFR), but it remains far from clear if, let alone when, the controversial technology will be adopted.
The artificial intelligence-powered tech, which allows scans of human faces to be compared against police databases, is hailed by some justice figures as a crucial biometric tool in the fight against crime, and one that can be used in a justifiable and proportionate manner.
But growing ethical concerns around algorithmic bias and accuracy have prompted a backlash, with human rights campaigners warning of a “historic shift” in the relationship between Police Scotland and the public.
Not as effective as claimed
Across England and Wales, LFR is being used by 13 forces, with the Met significantly scaling up its deployments; in the first four months of 2026, it has scanned more than 1.7 million faces.
As far as key watchdogs are concerned, the rapid increase in LFR’s use presents significant problems. William Webster, the biometrics commissioner for England and Wales, cautioned this week that the “slow pace of legislation was trying to catch up with the real world” while Dr Brian Plastow, the Scottish biometrics commissioner, said the technology was “nowhere near as effective as the police claim it is”.
Alasdair Hay, chair of the Scottish Police Authority’s policing performance committee, has stressed that while no decision has been made, Scotland’s national force would be required to produce a bespoke code of practice, and demonstrate compliance with the biometrics commissioner’s own code.
Police Scotland’s conversation exercise, meanwhile, found the public was split. While 49 per cent of respondents to a survey were comfortable with LFR’s potential rollout, 48 per cent took the opposite view, with focus groups flagging concerns such as the current lack of any legal basis governing the tech’s use.
The force is working on a detailed LFR business case. However, such is the complexity of the issues involved, it is not expected to emerge until at least 2027. That would then require a full consultation, and it remains to be seen if the incoming Scottish Government will support primary legislation in order to ensure the appropriate legal safeguards are in place.
No nation has ever passed such an instrument, instead relying on a patchwork of existing legal frameworks, including common law and data protection legislation, but Dr Plastow has supported the implementation of such a pioneering parliamentary act, describing it as the “gold standard”.
Significantly, the Home Office is currently consulting on creating a new and more comprehensive legal framework for biometric technologies, including LFR, as well as bolstering the LFR capability of forces in England and Wales. The repercussions of the divergent approaches between Scotland and the rest of the UK could be far reaching. Dr Plastow, for example, has raised concerns about the “dispersion” of serious organised crime groups to Scotland.
Coupled with the myriad doubts that have been expressed about this tech and its exponential growth, such fears mean it is surely vital the next administration at Holyrood pursues primary legislation. Police Scotland may not overcome the numerous human rights and privacy concerns in its way, but if LFR does make its way to Scotland, a fit-for-purpose law is the best way of establishing clear boundaries around its potential use.