On Tuesday, 26 February 2025, the Home Office and Ministry of Justice introduced the Crime and Policing Bill into Parliament. According to the government policy paper, the Bill aims to support the government's aim to tackle knife crime and violence against women and girls, along with increasing public confidence in policing and the criminal justice system.
A statement by Big Brother Watch (BBW) responding to the news highlights that powers proposed under clause 95 (page 118) of the Bill revive plans by the previous government to grant police forces access to our driving licence photos. According to BBW, the move opens the door to creating a massive facial recognition database.
Madeleine Stone, Senior Advocacy Officer at BBW, said: "It's disturbing to see the government is reheating the Conservative's abandoned plans to grant all police forces access to our driving licence photos, opening the door to the creation of a massive facial recognition database.
"More than 50 million Britons hold driving licences in order to travel and have not given permission for the government to turn our photos into mugshots. The Bill allows the government to grant police officers extraordinary powers to identify and track anyone with a driving licence, at the click of a button. Not only would this be an unprecedented breach of privacy, but would also put innocent citizens at risk of misidentifications and injustice."
Additional reporting in The Telegraph (£).
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