More facial recognition vans not intended to create 'total surveillance society', minister says

Facial recognition to be expanded as views sought to shape new laws (Image: PA Archive/PA Images)

Rolling out more facial recognition vans is not intended to create a "total surveillance society", the policing minister has said. Dame Diana Johnson said she believes the public would back the police's use of live facial recognition cameras, if they are used "in a very measured, proportionate way to go after" suspects who officers are looking for.

But Labour peer Baroness Shami Chakrabarti alleged that the technology had been "developed pretty much completely outside the law", and voiced fears that the Government's plan is "yet another move towards a total surveillance society".

Dame Diana denied Lady Chakrabarti's claim. Asked whether the rollout was the "thin end of the wedge", the H