Home Office

PublicTechnology reported on 23 July 2026 that the Home Office minister Alex Norris said in a written parliamentary answer that, "Subject to the results of the testing and trials taking place throughout 2026", facial age estimation "is planned to be rolled out from 2027", after full guidance is published. The article names Harlow-based Akhter Computers as the contract holder, with the German firm Cognitec as subcontractor, under a contract listed at £322,000 and running to May 2029; one listed use is helping to determine the age of people encountered without verifiable identity documents. The minister said no final decisions had been made on how the system will work operationally, including how results will be displayed and weighted, and that "The core model was not trained on Home Office operational data". PublicTechnology reported on 21 April 2026 that the technology had been tested on about 2.5 million images with a known age, and on 29 July 2025 that the then border security minister, Dame Angela Eagle, said facial age estimation was "likely" to be the most cost-effective option. No source found reports live use on people encountered by the Home Office, so it is recorded as proposed.