Report on advent of new technology in the justice system to be published

24 Mar 2022 03:06 PM

The report finds that technologies are developing at a pace that public awareness, government and legislation have not kept up with. This includes the deployment of facial recognition by the police and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics by the law enforcement community. 

The committee concludes that without sufficient safeguards, supervision, and caution, advanced technologies used in the justice system in England and Wales could undermine a range of human rights, risk the fairness of trials, weaken the rule of law, and further exacerbate inequalities.  

The report makes a number of recommendations, including that a mandatory register of algorithms should be established and the introduction of a duty of candour on the police to ensure full transparency over its use of AI. The committee also recommends a stronger legal framework and the establishment of a national body to set strict standards for the use of new technology and to certify new technological solutions against those standards.