Cherished Number Plates News

Credit Crunch Crunches New Recognition System

18 November 2008

The leading figures responsible for the transport in our country has withdrawn the funding for a new system to recognise the face of drivers behind the wheel to help with bringing drivers to justice. This system was needed because of the rising amounts of people who claim it wasn’t the driving their cars. "This project has been withdrawn, due to the existing economic climate." Said those responsible for the new decision to withdraw the funding.

"The introduction of the facial-recognition pilot scheme has been postponed, but rigorous checks on all applications will continue," said a Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) spokesperson.

"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 spokesperson added.

The original announcement of the new scheme was made in may 2007 during high economic prosperity: "The DVLA is seeking expressions of interest from suitable suppliers for the supply of hardware and software for the development and implementation of a pilot facial-biometric storage, search and matching system for facial images and the provision of related services."

"Subject to the success of the pilot, the contract will cover the development, installation, maintenance and support of a larger, integrated operating system," the notice states.

A system of this kind is already used by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) for passport applications, to make sure that people are who they say they are. This new system would have made great improvements to the justice system, however it is yet another victim of the Credit Crunch.