Overview
- The Home Office awarded a £322,000 contract to Harlow firm Akhter Computers, which was announced Friday, May 29, 2026, and lists German company Cognitec as a subcontractor to develop a facial age‑estimation algorithm.
- The department says early internal tests delivered 'promising performance and accuracy' and that controlled trials will run at the Western Jet Foil reception centre in Dover before a planned wider roll‑out in 2027.
- Ministers present the tool as an extra layer for cases without verifiable documents, not a replacement for human judgment, and say it aims to identify adults falsely claiming to be children.
- Human rights groups, charities and the British Association of Social Workers warn the technology is unproven, can reflect bias, and risks wrongly classifying vulnerable people who have aged visibly from trauma or malnutrition.
- Official data to March 2026 show 6,420 initial age assessments with 43% judged adults and a meaningful share of adult findings later overturned, so testing, safeguards and social‑worker involvement will determine whether the tool changes who gets child protection and care.