Home Office officials allegedly pressed the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to “act favourably” towards a private firm interested in rolling out facial recognition technology in public locations such as in retail settings, according to government emails seen by the Observer.

The publication said that in the emails, the Home Office wrote to the ICO threatening that policing minister Chris Philp would write to its commissioner if the regulator’s investigation into Facewatch – whose facial recognition cameras previously provoked huge opposition after being installed in Co-operative stores – was not positive towards the firm.

In the emails, the Home Office’s data and identity directorate warned the ICO: “If you are about to do something imminently in Facewatch’s favour then I should be able to head that off [Philp’s intervention], otherwise we will just have to let it take its course.”

Asked by the Observer about the matter, the ICO told the newspaper that the Home Office had “no influence” on its investigation into Facewatch, while the Home Office claimed Philp had made no attempt at influencing the regulator.

In 2020, Southern Co-operative, which has more than 200 Co-operative stores in the south of England, launched facial recognition technology developed by Facewatch in 18 of its stores in response to an 80 per cent increase in assaults and violence towards staff.

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