This will be a hybrid session, with both in-person and virtual tickets.
Please sign up to attend by 14 August 2023. After this date, you will no longer be able to register.
Home Office Biometrics operates a Biometrics Services Gateway (BSG). Designed, built and managed in-house, with cloud hosting, the BSG provides a non-proprietary, adaptable and scalable internal interconnect between HOB systems, including but not limited to those which provide biometric storage and search.
Through a series of externally exposed APIs, the BSG also provides connectivity to other systems and thereby to users of biometrics services in the Home Office (e.g. HM Passports, Migration & Borders), to operational partners and agencies outside of the Home Office (e.g. local police forces) and to foreign government partners for international biometric exchange (e.g. 27 Prüm Member States).
The Strategic Facial Matching (SFM) Project is delivering infrastructure, software services and data migration to create a new national facial matching service to be used for law enforcement purposes, commencing with a foundational Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for Retrospective Facial Recognition (RFR) in Spring 2024. Some of the subsequent developments will be enabled by means of either a new BSG API or adaptations to an existing BSG API.
Since 2018 the mobile fingerprint check service known as HOB Strategic Mobile or Rapid Search has been made available as a BSG API. This service is currently consumed by 35 local police forces and Immigration Enforcement, each of which has either built or bought mobile platforms and apps which are integrated with the BSG API. Mobile biometric services could be extended into the modality of face, exploiting the ubiquitous imaging capability now omnipresent in smartphones, together with apps and infrastructure which is already integrated with the BSG. This use case of facial search is referred to by policing as Operator Initiated Facial Recognition (OIFR) and is currently amongst the prioritised requirements of policing to maximise the benefits of facial recognition technology.
The purpose of this event is for the HOB Programme to engage with suppliers to discuss technical feasibility, to discuss delivery model options and to test commercial appetite to support such developments.
Discussion
1. Is the proposed Facial Matching service viable?
- If not, then why not and what would you recommend that the Home Office should change about the approach?
2. What risks or issues do suppliers see with the technical approach?
- What could the Home Office do to mitigate them?
3. What risks or issues do suppliers see with the commercial approach?
- What could the Home Office do to mitigate them?
4. What innovations for facial search could be enabled?
- What appetite would suppliers have to develop products to integrate and to add value?
5. How would you take into account user experience?
- What is your experience in helping ensure that the right thing is built for the end-users and the experience is intuitive and in line with their needs?
Georgie Morgan
Georgie Morgan
Georgie joined techUK as the Justice and Emergency Services (JES) Programme Manager in March 2020, progressing to Head of Programme in January 2022. Her portfolio then expanded in January 2024 where she now leads our work across fraud and economic crime.
In her current role, Georgie leads techUK’s engagement and initiatives across the blue light and criminal justice sectors. She works closely with industry and stakeholders to drive innovation, address challenges, and anticipate future needs, while showcasing the critical role technology plays in delivering essential public safety and justice services. Through the JES programme, she provides a platform for suppliers, helping them navigate and establish themselves in the blue light and criminal justice markets.
Before joining techUK, Georgie spent four and a half years managing a Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) in Westminster. Collaborating with the Metropolitan Police and local councils, she focused on mitigating the impact of crime on the business community. Her efforts spanned addressing low-level street crime and anti-social behavior to managing critical incidents and violent crime.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgie-henley/
Ellie Huckle
Ellie Huckle
Ellie joined techUK in March 2018 as a Programme Assistant to the Public Sector team and now works as a Programme Manager for the Central Government Programme.
The programme represents the supplier community of technology products and services in Central Government – in summary working to make Government a more informed buyer, increasing supplier visibility in order to improve their chances of supplying to Government Departments, and fostering better engagement between the public sector and industry. To find out more about what we do, how we do this and how you can get involved – make sure to get in touch!
Prior to joining techUK, Ellie completed Sixth Form in June 2015 and went on to work in Waitrose, moved on swiftly to walking dogs and finally, got an office job working for a small local business in North London, where she lives with her family and their two Bengal cats Kai and Nova.
When she isn’t working Ellie likes to spend time with her family and friends, her cats, and enjoys volunteering for diabetes charities. She has a keen interest in writing, escaping with a good book and expanding her knowledge watching far too many quiz shows!
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 020 7331 2015
- Twitter:
- @techUK,@techUK
- Website:
- www.techuk.org,www.techuk.org
- LinkedIn:
- https://bit.ly/3mtQ7Jx,https://bit.ly/3mtQ7Jx
