Court Rules Scotland Yard's Facial Recognition Use Lawful After Legal Challenge

Youth worker Shaun Thompson and Silkie Carlo, from campaign group Big Brother Watch, brought the claim over concerns that facial recognition could be used arbitrarily or in a discriminatory way. Scotland Yard defended the legal challenge, brought over its use of the technology from September 2024, telling the court in London that the policy was lawful. Lawyers argued the plans to mount permanent installations in the capital would make it "impossible" for Londoners to travel without their biometric data being taken and processed. Lord Justice Holgate and Mrs Justice Farbey said in a judgment that "in the context of promoting law and order in a large metropolis, the policy provides the claimants with an adequate indication of the circumstances in which LFR will be used and enables them to foresee, to a degree that is reasonable in the circumstances, the consequences of travelling in an area of London where LFR is in use". Plans set out by the Home Office in January will increase the number of vans from 10 to 50 and make them available to all forces across the two nations.