UK Home Office to pick 3 biometric self-service kiosk providers for immigration trial

Self-service biometric kiosks will be deployed for a trial in UK immigration applications, with a tender launched by Home Office Migration and Borders.

UK Home Office plans to deploy kiosks to facilities at Croydon and Solihull in a three-month trial, after determining in a review that kiosks are the more mature biometric self-service technology than remote systems on user’s mobile devices.

In addition to numerous leading biometrics suppliers included in the initial feasibility trials, including FaceTec, GBG, Idemia, Regula, Thales, Veridium, Aware, ID R&D, and Tech5, a company representative told Biometric Update in an email that iProov was a participant.

The tender document notes that questions can be asked by biometrics providers until August 1, ahead of the August 8 deadline for applications.

Five applications have been partially completed so far, two from SMEs and three from large providers.

The contracts budget up to £500,000 (US$608,000) for the development and installation of at least four kiosks from each provider, plus their operation for the three months of the trial. The contract covers six months; three months for development and three for the trial.

The kiosks are expected to securely enroll the face and fingerprint biometrics or real applicants, and bind the applicants to their biometrics, without staff assistance.

“Before a full live service can be considered, the self-service kiosks must prove they can reliably verify ePassports, and enroll high quality face and fingerprint biometrics and biographics, bind the individual to their face and fingerprint biometrics and operate effective presentation attack detection,” the announcement states. “The self-service kiosk must do this for all potential customers, while delivering a simple user experience, and the kiosks should be able to operate in an unsupervised environment.”

Trials are slated to begin by November 30, 2022, and technologies from three suppliers will be evaluated.

Ultimately, Home Office expects the kiosks to be just one in a series of options available to immigration applicants.

Article Topics

biometric liveness detection  |  biometrics  |  border security  |  face biometrics  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  government purchasing  |  kiosk  |  pilot project  |  tender  |  UK