§ Mr. Chris Smithasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the present state of development of the computer-aided facial recognition system (Wisard); for what purposes he envisages its use; whether he will publish the results of any feasibility study being conducted; and if he will make a statement.
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§ Mr. Giles ShawWisard is a commercially available system for recognising images and is not specifically a facial recognition system. The Home Office scientific research and development branch is, however, considering commissioning a feasibility study to assess whether it could be used for recognising faces. This proposal is still at an early stage and decisions have not yet been taken as to whether the results of any trials should be published.