Tools that could be ‘fully integrated’ into border and asylum processes in the coming months will be used to support decisions, rather than to make such calls on its own

New artificial intelligence-powered immigration technology being introduced by the government to automatically estimate people’s ages will not be solely relied upon to make determinations, a minister has claimed.

In recent months, the Home Office has led research and tests of potential technological methods to estimate the ages of asylum-seekers and others entering the UK immigration system – with the aim of better ensuring that adults and children are correctly classified as such. Following such experiments, ministers have previously indicated that AI face scans could be “fully integrated” into immigration processes next year.

In light of such claims, Labour MP Graeme Downie recently asked the Home Office “whether artificial intelligence will ever be used as the sole evidence source for age-assessment for migrants”.

In response, border security and asylum minister Alex Norris said: “Assessing age is a complex task and no method or combination of methods can definitively determine age. In order to strengthen the age assessment system, the Home Office is exploring facial age estimation technology. Work has been commissioned to test and trial this technology to understand its capabilities. The testing and assurance will be key in informing policy development and to ensure its use is proportionate.”

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He added: The technology will not be used in isolation but is intended to provide additional information to the decision maker. The government will issue further information regarding testing and assurance in due course.”

Other recent comments from Norris suggested that the face scans are only one form of new technology being explored by government to with the aim of eating into the backlog of asylum applications.

“The Home Office is investing in innovative techniques, including AI, to explore how we can improve productivity, speed up processing the asylum backlog, streamline the provision of accommodation and support, and restore order in the asylum system,” he said. “This will not be at the cost of compromising on accuracy due to the complexity and importance of asylum decisions.”

While the asylum backlog has fallen significantly in the past two years – from a high of 134,046 in June 2023 – there are still 70,532 cases awaiting an initial decision, plus tens of thousands more cases awaiting the outcome of an appeal, or deportation in light of an unsuccessful claim.