Earlier this week, policing minister Chris Philp proposed giving police access to more than 45 million images stored in the passport photos database for use in facial recognition technology, to help catch criminals like shoplifters and burglars.

But a joint statement backed by dozens of MPs and peers, including former Brexit secretary David Davis MP, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, Green MP Caroline Lucas and former shadow attorney-general Shami Chakrabarti, warns of “serious concerns” about the “incompatibility with human rights” and “discriminatory impacts” of facial recognition surveillance.

It also said expanded use of the technology lacked sufficient legal basis and a democratic mandate.

Governments around the world are considering whether to prohibit or permit the use of live facial recognition. While the European Parliament has endorsed a blanket ban on police using AI-powered facial recognition surveillance under the AI Act and several US...