News

On the 13 November the Commissioner and Director attended a session of the Criminal Justice Committee. During the session the Commissioner discussed our latest Annual Report and Accounts, our recent joint report on Laws of Retention and provided a flavour...

Report of a review of the retention of biometric data provided for under sections 18 to 19C of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 Scottish Government and the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner

The following statement from the Scottish Independent Parliamentary Officeholders is made in response to the report of the Scottish Parliament’s Finance and Public Administration Committee on Scotland’s Commissioner Landscape.

Commissioner welcomes FINDS Annual Report for 2023/24 The Scottish Biometrics Commissioner, Dr Brian Plastow, has today welcomed the publication of the UK Forensic Information Databases Service (FINDS) Annual Report for 2023/24. The report includes important information on the operations of...

The Scottish Biometrics Commissioner has contributed to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) publication on Biometric data: Misuse, use, and collation. POST is the UK Parliament's dedicated research and knowledge exchange service, providing impartial and reliable analysis of...

The Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Dr Brian Plastow will be speaking at an international conference on ‘Biometrics for Government and Law Enforcement’ to be held in Washington, D.C. in December 2024.

In this video you will view highlights from the conference and from speaker such as The Cabinet Secretary for Justice Angela Constance MSP, Chief Constable Jo Farrell and the SBC Commissioner Brian Plastow along with many others.

On 23 July 2024, the Commissioner wrote the attached letter to Police Scotland noting that the four recommendations from our joint assurance reviews with the SPA in 2023 had been successfully discharged by Police Scotland. The recommendations arose from our...

In an article published today in the UK Security Journal the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Dr Brian Plastow has called for a reset of UK Government Biometrics Strategy. The Commissioner has previously criticised statements made by the former policing minister for...

The Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Dr Brian Plastow has today confirmed that he would welcome an investigation by the UK Information Commissioner (ICO) to establish whether Police Scotland processing law enforcement data (including biometric data) within the Scottish Government funded Digital...

Welcome to the June 2024 newsletter for the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Since our last newsletter I have laid my Assurance Review on Images and completed our first Code of Practice Validated Self-Assessments

Today the Commissioner has received a letter from Tony Eastaugh the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner. The letter congratulates the Commissioner for helping organise the first Scottish Biometrics Conference.