Key facts
- The Home Office published guidance on October 8 and a data protection impact assessment later in October 2026.
- The documents say live facial recognition would be used for "general immigration enforcement", including non-criminal immigration offences.
- Immigration enforcement ran three live facial recognition trials at Holyhead port between November 2025 and February 2026.
- The Home Office spokesperson said it is "considering further trials" and "actively exploring" future use of the technology.
- The biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner, William Webster, said he was not consulted on the policy.
- Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood doubled the immigration enforcement budget and boosted its workforce by 60%.
The Home Office is preparing to deploy live facial recognition cameras at transport hubs and public events as part of an immigration enforcement crackdown, according to policy documents published on October 8 and a data protection impact assessment made public later in October.
The documents say the technology would be used for "general immigration enforcement", including non-criminal immigration offences, to identify people "seeking to re-enter the UK unlawfully", target those subject to removal action and address "immigration-related criminality". The Home Office states the cameras would locate undocumented people so it can resolve their cases, which it says would reduce "disruption to the wider public compared to repeated enforcement visits at residential addresses or workplaces".
The documents suggest people could be placed on watchlists for overstaying a visa without permission or entering without leave, which are civil rather than criminal matters. Anyone under 18 will not be included on a watchlist, the policy document states. The project "has now moved into the formal delivery phase", according to the documents.
Immigration enforcement conducted three trials of live facial recognition at Holyhead port in north Wales between November 2025 and February 2026, focused on people travelling from Ireland through the common travel area in breach of deportation orders or wanted on a warrant for an immigration-related criminal offence. Future watchlists could include individuals "liable to detention under immigration legislation" who have "failed to comply with immigration conditions of entry or stay".
Deployment locations have been expanded to include "proactive" use at transport hubs and at "specific" events expected to increase footfall, though no specific geography is named. A list of potential higher risk deployments includes locations with "heightened community sensitivity". The Home Office refused to comment when asked for clarity on what is meant by "events" or "sensitive" locations.
A Home Office spokesperson confirmed it is "considering further trials" of live facial recognition by immigration enforcement officers and is "actively exploring the potential benefits, implications, and future use of the technology". The policy documents claim the use of live facial recognition by immigration enforcement "is subject to external oversight, including by the biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner and the Information Commissioner's Office".
William Webster, the biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner, told Liberty Investigates, which first uncovered the documents, that he was not consulted on the policy and that immigration use of live facial recognition falls outside his remit. He said the "proliferation of LFR into different service contexts does raise important questions about the scope of existing regulatory oversight", which he hopes will be addressed in the forthcoming legislative framework for facial recognition.
Griff Ferris, spokesperson for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said immigration enforcement already employed tactics that "persecute and terrorise migrant communities" and that giving it more power to use a "racist mass surveillance tool in public places is frightening". Sarah Lasoye of the Open Rights Group said immigration enforcement "appear to be giving themselves the green light to expand use of highly controversial facial recognition technologies without scrutiny, transparency or public consent".
The publication follows Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's decision to double the budget for immigration enforcement and boost its workforce by 60% to allow "tens of thousands" more raids, arrests and deportations. Earlier in 2026 it was revealed that the Home Office had continued to use an AI facial-age estimation tool despite knowing it had misidentified migrant children as adults.