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James Cleverly MP Secretary of State for Home Department Home Office Direct Communications Unit 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF United Kingdom Cc: Chris Philp MP Minister of State (Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire) 18 January 2024 Dear Mr Cleverly, Re: The danger posed to UK society by Facial Recognition Technology We are writing to you, as organisations who campaign to defend privacy and fr. [...] It is also deeply concerning that at least 45 UK territorial police forces have been confirmed as using retrospective FRT, despite previous police denials to this effect.2 Private companies have also been rolling out this surveillance technology within retail spaces unchecked.3 Now, plans to allow UK police forces access the UK’s passport database to enhance their use of facial recognition systems. [...] Instead, police forces and the private sector continue to wrongly justify their use of FRT through a patchwork of legislation including common law policing powers and data protection legislation, which fails to adequately address the use of the technology.6 Furthermore, the expansion of FRT puts the UK out of step with the rest of the democratic world. [...] Recently Members of the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of placing a full ban on the use of live FRT in public spaces and the EU’s AI Act introduces significant restrictions on its use.7 Bans have also been introduced in numerous US states8, with Vice President Kamala Harris singling out the risk FRT poses to the public ahead of the UK’s recent AI Safety Summit.9 Recently, over. [...] We are calling on you as Home Secretary to put an immediate end to this radical expansion of the use of FRT in order protect the fundamental freedoms of all members of UK society.