2008-11-14 15:12:00 - It was meant to be the DVLA's answer to stopping fraudulent driving licences, but the automated facial recognition database has become a victim of the current financial crisis.

DVLA's facial recognition database victim of credit crunch



The DVLA put out a tender for the system back in May for a database, which could hold up to fifty million images, this database, would say the DVLA help fight against the estimated hundred thousand, so duplicated, or suspect driving licences.

Digitally match the original images used in the early photo card driving licences were not up to the current standard and cannot easily.

However, digital imagery has moved on so fast over the past ten years the current licences are entirely different and in fact, the DVLA are able to work with the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), showing how serious this could be.

Ieuan Griffiths, the DVLA's director of finance and strategy,

said in May: "An automated search would allow us in future to check the new photographs across the database where we are aware that we have duplicate records: some mistakes, some fraudulent."

The database, which had an initial price tag of around £10 million, would have been able to process around thirty thousand driving licence applications and penalty point registrations every day, it would also check the images to those held on the database in case of fraud.

A spokesperson for the DVLA said: "To maximise the detection of fraudulent applications DVLA employs teams of highly trained dedicated staff who apply rigorous checking standards to all applications for driving licences.

"The introduction of the facial recognition pilot scheme has been postponed but rigorous checks on all applications will continue."

With almost forty million driving licences held by the public and thirty million of them being the new style photo card, the task of checking every one that goes to the DVLA for whatever reason is simply daunting.

Source [Guardian]

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