(this programme mentions the "National Physical Laboratory" which is another of Rishi Sunak's fucked-up projects)

Is it legal for police to use live facial recognition technology?
The Law Show

The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says she makes “no apology” for announcing the roll-out of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) to all the police services in England and Wales.

Under a government white paper on policing, the number of Live Facial Recognition vans will increase from 10 to 50.

Police say it’s groundbreaking technology in the fight against crime, but civil liberties groups say it’s authoritarian and a step towards a "surveillance state".

Facial recognition cameras are already used in shops; the difference with LFR is that the software used by police tracks faces against a watchlist - a specific database of faces - from a live video feed.

But the legal framework regulating the use of the technology is a patchwork of common law, human rights legislation and police guidelines, which has been challenged in the High Court.

There is also concern about a lack of oversight over how police watchlists are compiled, and why the number of people on the list now stretches into the thousands.

So is LFR legal?

Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan
Producers: Ravi Naik and Charlotte Rowles
Editor: Tom Bigwood

Contributors:
Sonja Jessup, BBC London’s home affairs correspondent
Professor Karen Yeung, Interdisciplinary Professorial Fellow in Law, Ethics and Informatics, Birmingham Law School
Dr Asress Gikay, Senior Lecturer in AI, Disruptive Innovation and Law, Brunel, University of London
Richard Ryan a barrister from Blakiston’s, specialising in drone and unmanned aviation law

#FacialRecognition #UKPol #BBCRadio4 #BBCTheLawShow #RishiSunak #NationalPhysicalLaboratory

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002sf5p

2026-03-10 2100-2130

The plans to limit jury trials in England and Wales
The Law Show

The courts system in England and Wales is in an unprecedented crisis. The backlog has reached 80,000 cases, and some defendants are being told they won't be able to have a criminal trial until 2030.

The government has introduced the Courts and Tribunals Bill, which contains a raft of measures to tackle delays and bring down the backlog; but the Justice Secretary David Lammy has admitted that things are going to get even worse before they get better.

The most controversial change is a plan to restrict the number of jury trials. The right to judgement by your peers has existed for more than 800 years, but for some offences, that's going to end.

Defendants will lose the right to choose between a jury trial or a magistrate's hearing in so-called "either-way" offences.

Magistrates will get increased sentencing powers - up from 12 months to 18 months.

More serious criminal cases, with likely sentences of up to three years will now be heard by a single judge - and no jury.

And only the most serious "indictable" offences, like murder, manslaughter and rape and any other offence with a sentence of longer than three years will be heard by a jury.

But will the reforms make a difference?

Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan
Producers: Ravi Naik and Charlotte Rowles
Editor: Tom Bigwood

Contributors:
Sarah Sackman KC, courts and legal services minister
Chris Kinch, KC, who until 2024 was a senior judge at Woolwich Crown Court in south London
David Ford, national chair of the Magistrates Association

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28 minutes

#BBCRadio4 #BBCTheLawShow #DavidLammy #SingleJusticeProcedure

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002s4hz