• Home
  • News
  • UK Home Office to Expand Facial Recognition Vans Across the Country
UK Home Office to Expand Facial Recognition Vans Across the Country

UK Home Office to Expand Facial Recognition Vans Across the Country

Author: admin | 13 Aug 2025

The Home Office is deploying 10 new Live Facial Recognition (LFR) vans to seven police forces in England, doubling the current fleet. The technology will target suspects linked to serious crimes, including sexual offences, violent assaults, and homicides. Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley, and Hampshire will share the new vehicles.

The LRF vans are already used in London, South Wales, and Essex. They scan passers-by and match their facial features against a watchlist. In London, LFR has led to 580 arrests in the past year, including 52 registered sex offenders who violated probation terms or court-imposed restrictions.

The potential expansion of LFR vans across England is being met with strong criticism. Civil rights organisations fear that the shift will normalise mass surveillance and will diminish individual rights. Reportedly, critics, among whom is Big Brother Watch, describe the expansion as alarming and argue it introduces a surveillance state. A legal challenge is underway, with privacy concerns raised by Baroness Chakrabarti, who warned of threats to civil liberties.

Minister of State for Policing and Crime Prevention, Diana Johnson, has reportedly defended the move. She said the LFR is a “proportionate, measured” instrument of finding serious offenders, where deployments are marked.

Thus, the government seeks the input on how to strike the right balance between representing transparent processes and instilling a sense of trust in the society whilst being law-abiding and privacy-respectful.

The LRF technology will be employed during events such as concerts and football matches to aid the security of the event. But other activists feel that this application of the LFR has itself been miscarried, and there are issues of retaliation and misuse.

The proponents respond that independent testing has revealed no bias, suggesting that the technology does not overwhelmingly affect any group due to ethnicity, age, or gender.

The Rapid Adoption of Facial Recognition Policing in Other Regions

England is not alone in expanding the use of facial recognition in policing. In Thailand, police use robots equipped with facial recognition to watch public areas and spot suspects. Similarly, in Singapore, tested cameras have been installed in the city that can match faces as part of its “Safe City” program. In the United States, urban areas such as New York utilize mobile units equipped with comparable technology. 

UK Home Office to Expand Facial Recognition Vans Across the Country