Privacy Groups Warn Policing Bill Will Heighten Surveillance and Crackdown on Protests

March 11, 2025 TruthUSA

Under government proposals, law enforcement could access the personal data of over 52 million UK drivers.

The Crime and Policing Bill will expand police surveillance by linking driving licenses to a large facial recognition database, and will ban facial coverings at protests, privacy advocates have warned.

The bill, which passed its second reading in Parliament unopposed on Monday, is intended to give police greater powers to tackle antisocial behaviour and crime. It prohibits the deliberate use of face coverings to hide identity during protests and grants law enforcement access to Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) records.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended the bill in Parliament, stating it would “rebuild confidence in policing and the criminal justice system.” However, privacy groups including Privacy International, Big Brother Watch, and Liberty argued these measures threaten the public’s right to privacy and protest.

Privacy International told The Epoch Times that police access to DVLA records could create a “vast database” that may be used for facial recognition technology. The DVLA holds data on over 52 million drivers, including names, addresses, and photographs.

The Conservatives first proposed expanding police access in 2023 as part of the Criminal Justice Bill. The new Labour government scrapped the legislation but incorporated some provisions in the Crime and Policing Bill in February this year.

According to Privacy International’s Senior Policy Officer Sarah Simms, clause 95 of the new bill does not explicitly mention facial recognition, but it mirrors a previous provision in the Criminal Justice Bill.

“When the bill was debated in Parliament the then-policing minister Chris Philp stated that this was an intended purpose of this clause. We believe this would be disproportionate insofar as it has the potential to treat the whole population as if they are part of a virtual line-up, suspected of having committed a crime,” Simms said.

She also raised concerns that no specific laws regulate facial recognition technology, leaving no safeguards or restrictions on its use.

Senior Advocacy Manager at Big Brother Watch Madeleine Stone called the new bill a “draconian” measure, which will convert driving licences into a giant police database.

“It’s disturbing to see the government reheating the Conservatives’ plans to turn our driving licence photos into mugshots, opening the door to creation of a massive facial recognition database. Granting the police extraordinary new powers to ban facial coverings at protests is a massive expansion of surveillance state,” she said.

Speaking at the House of Commons on Monday, now shadow home secretary Philp reiterated his support for the use of retrospective and live facial recognition to combat crime. He said it enables the police to catch criminals who would otherwise not be caught and asked policing minister Dame Diana Johnson for an update on the planned use of facial recognition.

Liberal Democrat MP Lisa Smart has called for a government framework for facial recognition use, saying it was long overdue.

“The police should focus on evidence-based crime prevention, not rolling out flawed and biased surveillance technology. Any use of it by the police must be transparent, unbiased, and regulated. We can see police forces coming up with their own rules within which to operate. It is long past time for the government to set the framework,” she said.

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