Recommendation 21

HMPPS launched its Home Office Immigration Enforcement project, on behalf of the Home Office, in August 2021. This project extended the use of tagging using GPS tags to Foreign National Offenders who are subject to deportation proceedings. HMPPS rolled out standard fitted tags on schedule, but both it and G4S faced challenges in developing non-fitted devices: removable watches which capture facial recognition scans. Eleven months after HMPPS decided to pursue G4S’s solution, the Ministry of Justice’s Security Function advised that the device should no longer be pursued as the operating system was not compliant with cyber security standards.40 HMPPS told us that the Home Office’s original requirement for facial recognition technology significantly narrowed the available market and that the only potentially viable solution was an option available from G4S. HMPPS explained that once it learnt that the operating system was out of date, it, the Home Office and G4S agreed that the device could not be updated due to high costs. It told us that the Home Office has now opted to pursue devices which capture fingerprints instead, which has opened up more options in the market. HMPPS expected the new device to be available from September 2022.41