Privacy

The facial images of more than 45 million people on Britain’s passport database will be used to identify suspects in criminal investigations, under new plans announced by the country’s crime and policing minister.

Chris Philp, speaking at a sideline event during the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, said that while police already had the authority to access the passport database, a new data platform providing a practical mechanism for them to use it would be running within the next two years.

The Home Office has been attempting to create a modern data platform combining the disparate databases it owns for the best part of a decade, as first reported in The Register back in 2016.

Philp said he wanted the new platform to integrate a number of databases, including the immigration and asylum biometrics system covering foreign nationals, so police could find a match using input images captured by CCTV, doorbell cameras or dashcams.

The pledge to use the passport database follows retail industry executives complaining about the police for failing to respond to violent attacks on staff and thefts from retail stores. The Home Office’s statistics record that in more than 54% of all reported shoplifting crimes last year, no suspect was ever identified.