The Home Office has told police forces to check their own photo databases before asking it to search its libraries of passport and visa facial images, as well as avoiding urgent requests "unless it is absolutely necessary."

In new guidance for its passport counter fraud officers and caseworkers in its Immigration Fingerprint Bureau, the Home Office details the hoops that law enforcement officers (LEOs) need to jump through to get an image checked against the huge facial databases used for UK passports and visas.

It follows privacy campaign groups Big Brother Watch and Privacy International issuing pre-action legal correspondence to the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police, along with a call for a moratorium on police searches of the databases, in August.

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