No false alerts in UK POC of live facial recognition for immigration enforcement

A single arrest was made following a live facial recognition match at a UK port during a November proof-of-concept trial, but more importantly the biometric technology did not generate any false alerts, according to a transparency update provided by the Home Office.

The transparency data on a deployment of live facial recognition for Immigration Enforcement from November 10 to 29, 2025 was released by the Home Office on Friday. The trial was held at the Port of Holyhead in Anglesey, Wales.

In each of eight deployments, live facial recognition was implemented on one or two  cameras, with watchlists of up to 4,868 subjects and a match threshold of 0.64. Combined, Home Office counted approximately 7,500 “faces seen,” two interventions, one arrest or “disposal” and no incorrect alerts.

The POC was managed by South Wales Police and Greater Manchester Police, and targeted 0.1 percent “false alert rate” (FAR). Recognition time was also noted as a key performance metric at the time, and Border Force Director General Phil Douglas told The Sun that the results of the POC show that if LFR is used, long waits to cross the border could be “considerably reduced.”

The plan was for the system to collect anonymized demographic data in the event of any false positive match, PublicTechnology reported at the time, but as there were no false alerts recorded, the disclosure includes no demographic information. An equality impact assessment from published prior to the trial by Home Office confirms that the agency uses NEC’s Neoface V4 for live facial recognition.

Shortly before the POC was launched, Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch argued that by using facial recognition and creating a “Removals Force,” the UK could do more to reduce illegal immigration than it could through the introduction of mandatory right to work checks carried out with a new national digital ID.

With the results of the POC in hand, Home Office is likely to announce new deployment of LFR to the UK’s ports soon.

Home Office launched a 10-week public consultation in December on the use of facial recognition, including LFR, by UK police.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  border security  |  immigration  |  law enforcement  |  live facial recognition  |  NEC  |  NeoFace  |  real-time biometrics  |  UK