§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on his Department's research into automated facial recognition from photographs.
§ Mr. MacleanThe Department's work aims to ensure that the police are able to make maximum use of both images and eye witness reports in the investigation of 561W crime. The first stage will be the provision of images to accompany the textual information on the Phoenix criminal justice record service.
Operational trials have shown that photographs which have been coded by reference to physical features can be retrieved during the interview of a witness significantly more successfully than uncoded photographs. But manual coding is a very labour intensive process and my Department is therefore investigating automatic coding methods. It is also working with facial identification practitioners to establish standards for the analysis and presentation of facial identification evidence to the courts.
562W
Conviction rates and average sentence length (months) given for the offence of theft and handling stolen goods and all offences in the Ashton-Under-Lyne and South Tameside Petty Sessional Divisions by age groups, 1989–1993 Theft and handling stolen goods All offences1 10–17 18+ All ages 10–17 18+ All ages 1989 Ashton-Under-Lyne PSD Conviction rate (per cent.) 71 62 64 78 79 79 Average sentence length (months) (1.6) (2.4) (2.4) (2.2) 2.7 2.6 South Tameside PSD Conviction rate (per cent.) (76) 64 66 76 78 78 Average sentence length (months) (2.3) (1.7) (1.8) (3.3) 2.3 2.5 England and Wales PSDs Conviction rate (per cent.) 72 66 67 71 78 77 Average sentence length (months) 3.1 2.6 2.7 3.4 2.9 3.0 1990 Ashton-Under-Lyne PSD Conviction rate (per cent.) 74 61 63 78 76 76 Average sentence length (months) (4.0) (1.9) (2.0) (3.3) 2.5 2.6 South Tameside PSD Conviction rate (per cent.) (67) 57 58 77 79 78 Average sentence length (months) (3.2) (1.9) (2.1) (2.4) 2.5 2.5 England and Wales PSDs Conviction rate (per cent.) 70 65 66 69 76 76 Average sentence length (months) 3.0 2.5 2.6 3.3 2.8 2.9 1991 Ashton-Under-Lyne PSD Conviction rate (per cent.) 74 65 66 72 78 77 Average sentence length (months) (2.5) (1.3) (1.4) (3.0) 2.1 2.2 South Tameside PSD Conviction rate (per cent.) (95) 66 70 75 79 79 Average sentence length (months — (2.0) (2.0) (2.5) 2.9 2.9 England and Wales PSDs Conviction rate (per cent.) 66 63 64 65 73 73 Average sentence length (months) 3.0 2.4 2.5 3.3 2.8 2.9 1992 Ashton-Under-Lyne PSD Conviction rate (per cent.) 83 65 68 75 73 73 Average sentence length (months) (1.8) (1.9) (1.8) (2.3) 2.4 2.4 South Tameside PSD Conviction rate (per cent.) (84) 67 69 67 72 72 Average sentence length (months) (2.0) (2.5) (2.4) (3.3) 2.9 2.9 England and Wales PSDs Conviction rate (per cent.) 62 62 62 60 72 71 Average sentence length (months) 3.2 2.4 2.5 3.4 2.8 2.9 These standards may eventually be embodied in a computer system.