Facial recognition cameras secretly spy on airport passengers
Facial recognition cameras have secretly been monitoring airport passengers under a scheme backed by the Home Office, documents obtained under freedom of information (FoI) laws reveal.
Unpublished Home Office orders reveal airports are required to carry out biometric face scanning of any passenger boarding a domestic flight.
The orders, made under Schedule Two of the Immigration Act 1971, are the first known examples of the Government making facial recognition a legal requirement in the UK.
They have been in place for at least 15 years, since the last Labour government, but have never been publicly disclosed. The rules require airports with a single departure lounge to capture a facial biometric photo of domestic passengers entering and leaving this area to board their planes.
Airports are expected to use biometric technology to compare the photos and verify that the correct people are boarding their flights.
The measures are designed to prevent international passengers switching boarding passes in order to illegally enter the UK on a domestic flight.
The orders were obtained by the campaign group Big Brother Watch after a year-long transparency battle when Home Office officials initially fought to keep the orders secret. They argued that releasing the documents would reveal 'sensitive operational information'.
Big Brother Watch complained to the Information Commissioner's Office, which intervened and told the Home Office to release the documents in full.
The ruling found that the Home Office had overreached by claiming that publication would undermine immigration controls, stating that it had not presented 'credible evidence' of harm.
'New era of biometric surveillance'
Madeleine Stone, senior advocacy officer at Big Brother Watch, said attempts to keep the orders secret were 'staggering' given that they meant 'tens of millions of law-abiding passengers have had no choice but to have their faces scanned'.
She said: 'This is the first example of mandated facial recognition in Britain and represents a new era of biometric surveillance for citizens, yet the Home Office fought to keep this legal notice a secret.'
The orders obtained under FoI law relate to Manchester and Gatwick, but the rules are understood to apply to all airports which have common departure lounges for both domestic and international passengers. One dates back to 2009/2010 when Alan Johnson was Labour home secretary under Gordon Brown.
Some 3.7 million passengers took domestic flights from London Gatwick and Manchester Airport in 2023, while Heathrow had an estimated 4.2 million domestic passengers.
The order for Gatwick states that it must use 'biometric systems' whereby a 'photo reconciliation system' is located at the entrance and exit to the common departure lounge. A photo must be taken of each domestic passenger on entry to the lounge.
'On leaving the lounge, each departing domestic passenger must have their identity verified against the image captured on entry into the lounge. Technology used to capture and verify images must be of a good standard which will provide assurance of continuity of identity,' says the order.
Failure to comply with the order carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
Manchester Airport states in a privacy notice that it collects biometric data in the form of facial recognition images in terminal one security areas, terminal two transfers and terminal three.
It is understood Manchester complies with data protection laws, with the images retained for 24 hours and only shared with statutory agencies for national security purposes.
Facial images are captured as passengers enter the lounge through a gate and present their boarding pass to a reader. A second image, with which to compare their facial identification, is taken when they board their plane and leave the departure gate.
Big Brother Watch said that under UK and European law, the collection of biometric data such as facial recognition scans, fingerprinting or DNA samples was subject to strict regulation and could only be required where absolutely necessary for a legitimate or legal purpose.
It said: 'Passengers travelling internationally can choose whether to undergo facial recognition checks at e-gates or human verification by queuing for manual checks on UK borders – making the secret mandatory biometric checks for domestic travel the first known such example.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
17 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Reeves has folded like the Tin Foil Chancellor she is
Rachel Reeves confirmed on Wednesday that she is a ' spend today, tax tomorrow ' Chancellor. Her spending spree on the country's credit card has set us on a collision course with the autumn when more tax rises will hit working families' pockets hard. After a year of chaos, how can anyone take this Government seriously? Rather than using the spending review as an opportunity to deliver secure public finances, the Chancellor is instead lurching from one disaster to the next. The cruel cuts to winter fuel payments, the £30 billion Chagos Islands surrender and the billions in no-strings-attached union handouts are all chickens that have come home to roost. When the pressure is on, the self-styled 'Iron Chancellor' folds like the 'Tin Foil Chancellor' she really is. She promised to get borrowing down, but the deficit is up by 70 per cent on her watch. She pledged no new taxes rises, yet more are on their way. She pledged not to change pensioner benefits, then U-turned. Then U-turned again. The only consistent thing about her is her inconsistency. Her own MPs, Cabinet ministers and Labour's trade union paymasters smell weakness. They know she's vulnerable and they will demand more money – and get it if they shout loud enough. The Chancellor has boxed herself into a corner. We face an extra £200 billion of borrowing this Parliament compared with the last Conservative Budget, with £80 billion more in interest payments alone. We are almost a year in but no economic plan is forthcoming. Our country is exposed. We have no room left to respond to shocks in global markets. Interest rates and mortgages are staying higher for longer because of her choices, as the OBR has said. She trumpets the hundreds of billions in extra spending she has announced while on the other hand claiming to have fixed the public finances. It simply doesn't make sense. She claims there is 'still work to do to ensure the sums add up'. That's not stability, it's uncertainty – the very last thing markets want to hear. It is not just markets. Her abject failure means British families have seen inflation almost double, unemployment rise, growth stalling, debt interest soar and pensioners sacrificed. The country is worse off because of her choices. What of the winter fuel U-turn? Last summer, pensioners were left out in the cold to avoid 'a run on the pound', as Labour's Lucy Powell put it. Now they claim they can afford to reverse it because they have fixed the economy and the finances – but economists are saying both are in a worse state since Labour came to office. Nothing's changed except the Government's credibility, which is vanishing. Rock bottom confidence There was nothing in her review restore rock bottom business confidence. Payrolls fell by over 100,000 last month alone. Unemployment is up 10 per cent since Labour took office. Only businesses create growth and jobs. But our Chancellor has not yet learnt that basic lesson of economics, her fingers planted firmly in her ears whilst the alarm bells are ringing. Similarly, the first and most important duty of any Prime Minister is keeping the country safe. But even as the world is becoming more dangerous and a new axis of evils draws their battle lines, there was no further progress towards spending 3 per cent of GDP on defence, which Labour claim to be committed to. They stood firm on the Chagos surrender, which is paying for tax cuts for Mauritians while we suffer, costing our country £30 billion to lease back our own land. There is no urgency on the issues of the day. The Home Office budget too has been significantly hit by asylum costs, while illegal crossings soar. Rather than point the finger at everyone else, the Chancellor should take responsibility and fix the problems she has created. Instead, the socialist's lazy embrace of high spending, more borrowing and higher taxes beckons – leaving our public finances dangerously vulnerable. If we were in charge, we would take a different approach. We wouldn't kill growth with tax rises and red tape. We'd restore confidence, focus on efficiency and productivity, and reform welfare to get people off benefits and into work. At the end of the day, it's working people and businesses who will pay – with higher taxes, higher costs, and fewer opportunities. This Spending Review is unaffordable, and so is this Chancellor.
Daily Mail
23 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Business counts cost of Labour's bloated state amid fears Chancellor is set to launch another tax raid
Business has been left fearing another tax raid after the Chancellor's spending review failed to shrink the bloated state. Bosses demanded that Rachel Reeves show leadership by tackling public sector waste – as the private sector is having to cut its cloth as Government-imposed costs surge. Reeves told MPs she would be 'relentless in driving out efficiencies', claiming billions would be saved through greater productivity and more use of artificial intelligence (AI). But her announcement did nothing to change the size of the spending 'envelope' set out at the time of her Spring Statement, leaving many fearing the worst in this autumn's Budget. Analysis of official forecasts cited by former Bank of England rate-setter Andrew Sentance shows spending as a proportion of GDP will average 44.6 per cent during Labour's parliamentary term. 'However Rachel Reeves spins her spending review, this Government is planning the biggest spending review since World War Two, outdoing even Denis Healey [in the 1970s] in spending as a share of GDP,' Sentance said. That profligacy has come at a cost: higher taxes. Businesses have so far borne the brunt, as the Chancellor's £25billion raid on employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) in last autumn's Budget left them scrambling to find savings – and, in many cases, cut jobs – as they also grappled with a sharp rise in the minimum wage. The spending review will not improve that situation. In fact, it has only heightened fears that Reeves will put taxes up again. That is because a worsening economic picture – partly thanks to Donald Trump's trade war – could take its toll on growth and, therefore, reduce the tax take. Higher borrowing costs are also making it harder for the Chancellor's sums to add up. Reeves insisted that the fiscal rules obliging her to balance the books are 'non-negotiable' – meaning something will have to give. The Institute of Directors (IoD) voiced hopes that some of the Chancellor's efficiency measures could be used to help business. Anna Leach, chief economist at the IoD, said: 'We would expect over time for savings to be used to bring down the tax burden from its post-war record.' But the Chancellor made clear that she had no intention of doing so. Instead, she boasted that 'every single penny [will be] reinvested back in our public services' – raising eyebrows in the City given the state of the public finances and long-term projections that they will get even worse over coming decades. 'Makes sense when your debt is on a sustainable path, less so when debt [as a proportion of GDP] is heading to 270 per cent and interest costs £105billion/year,' said Simon French, chief economist at broker Panmure Liberum. It all added up, experts said, to an inevitable tax raid this autumn. The frustration for bosses is that while the Chancellor recycles cash around the public sector – part of her plan includes hiring thousands more staff to collect tax – they are having to make tough choices after being battered by her tax raids. Steve Hare, chief executive of UK software firm Sage, noted in an interview with the BBC that while his clients – small and medium businesses – were 'trying to drive their own productivity and efficiency', the size of the Civil Service workforce had swollen to more than half a million. For some firms, efficiencies may not be enough. Michael Turner, chairman of pubs group Fullers, warned: 'The changes to NICs took everyone by surprise and I fear it could be terminal for a number of smaller operators in our market.' The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Britain's main business lobby group, has warned that the prospect of further tax increases risked further damaging sentiment. 'Businesses are labouring under the cumulative burden of rises in NICs and minimum wages,' said CBI chief executive Rain Newton-Smith. She added: 'With the Autumn Budget now coming sharply into focus, the Chancellor should prioritise squashing tax rumours and speculation that risks stymying confidence and subduing investment decisions.' But others were broadly resigned that more punishment is on the horizon. 'Tax rises are now all but inevitable... no matter what measures are taken between now and the Budget,' said Alison Ring, the director at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. She added: 'The Government's sticking plaster strategy remains an obstacle to addressing the deep-set challenges facing the country.'
Scottish Sun
32 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Chancellor Rachel Reeves unleashes eye-watering borrowing spree in do-or-die bid to drive growth
RACHEL Reeves was yesterday branded a 'spend now, tax later' Chancellor after unleashing an eye-watering borrowing spree in a do-or-die bid to drive growth. Ms Reeves put £113billion on the country's credit card to fund 'national renewal' projects — with defence and the NHS taking the lion's share of the budget uplifts. 3 Rachel Reeves was branded a 'spend now, tax later' Chancellor Credit: Simon Walker / HM Treasury 3 The Chancellor unleashing an eye-watering borrowing spree in a do-or-die bid to drive growth Credit: AFP She was accused of digging the 'black hole' in public finances Labour claimed to have inherited into a 'crater into which public confidence is plunging'. Experts said her next Budget may have to raise up to £23billion to keep to her fiscal rules amid economic slowdown and uncertainty over US tariffs. It sparked fears of tax rises in autumn to stop UK debt worsening and spooking money markets. Ms Reeves came out fighting after a humiliating 48 hours in which she U-turned on winter fuel cash for millions of OAPs. She unveiled spending plans for the next three years, calling them 'Labour choices' in the hope of shoring up support in the party's heartlands amid the threat of Nigel Farage's Reform UK. Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said she had a 'Corbynist catalogue' of tax rises to flick through to fund her pledges — a reference to a secret memo Deputy PM Angela Rayner sent her suggesting ways to raise cash. He called her a 'tinfoil Chancellor, flimsy and ready to fold in the face of the slightest pressure' as she set out her plans. He said: 'This is the spend now, tax later review, because the Chancellor knows she will need to come back here in the autumn with yet more taxes and a cruel summer of speculation awaits. 'How can we possibly take this Chancellor seriously after the chaos of the last 12 months?' Mr Reeves insisted later that no tax rises would be needed to pay for her commitments. Top 5 takeaways from Spending review She said: 'Every penny is funded through the tax increases and changes to the fiscal rules that we set out last autumn.' The review was the first since 2007 to go through spending 'line by line', it was claimed. The health department is expected to make £9billion in efficiency savings by 2028-29, and the defence budget £905million. The Chancellor told MPs: 'I've made my choices. In place of chaos, I choose stability. 3 'In place of decline, I choose investment. In place of pessimism, division and defeatism, I choose national renewal. 'Reforms that will make public services more efficient, more productive and more focused on the user. I have been relentless in driving out inefficiencies. 'I will be ruthless in calling out waste with every penny being reinvested into public services.' She will hope the cash injections will ease relationships with Labour backbenchers concerned at welfare cuts. A vote on measures is planned for next month. The biggest winner in the review was the NHS, which gets a three per cent budget rise in England over the next three years, taking its funding to £226billion. Financial cushion The defence budget will go up by 2.6 per cent but pressure is mounting on ministers to raise it again to 3.5 per cent by 2035. The vow to build 1.5 million homes in the next five years was boosted with confirmation an average of £3.9billion will be go on social and affordable housing in the next decade. Ed Miliband's energy department gets a 16 per cent real-terms rise with £14.2billion extra going on the Sizewell C nuclear plant. Families and OAPs could save £600 a year on bills in more energy-efficient homes, she said. A pledge to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029 will save £1billion a year, she insisted. The police will get an above-inflation increase but top cops have warned of 'incredibly challenging' budgets following tense talks between the Chancellor and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. Surrey Chief Constable Gavin Stephens said the money will 'fall far short' of that needed to fund Government ambitions and maintain the existing workforce. He said the increase 'will cover little more than annual inflationary pay increases'. The Chancellor inherited, supposedly, a black hole and she has dug a crater into which public confidence is plunging. Richard Tice Ms Reeves aims to meet her fiscal rule of balancing day-to-day spending with revenues by 2029-30 and plans to reduce the UK's debt. Her financial cushion is just less than £10billion. Reform deputy leader Richard Tice said public spending was 'completely out of control'. He said: 'The Chancellor inherited, supposedly, a black hole and she has dug a crater into which public confidence is plunging.' Economist Ruth Gregory, of Capital Economics, said Ms Reeves may need to find an extra £13billion to £23billion in autumn's Budget 'simply to maintain her current buffer against the fiscal rules'. Stephen Millard, interim director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said it is now 'almost inevitable' that if she sticks to her rules, she will have to raise taxes this year. Rain Newton-Smith, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, warned that the Government cannot target business again following its £25billion raid at the last Budget. She said: 'We will hold the Chancellor to account that she won't come back for tax rises on business . . . because I don't think business can shoulder any more. 'The Prime Minister himself has said you cannot tax your way to growth. "So I think it's critical that we don't see rises like that on business because they are the ones that need to invest to deliver the growth mission.'
