You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Contents hide March has been a fantastic month for PlayStation gamers. There have been some huge releases this month including Assassins Creed Shadows, and there will be even more in April, including the arrival of Indiana Jones on PS5 consoles. In addition, there will be more freebies for PS Plus subscribers. The PS Plus April 2025 free games reveal date is imminent, and here you will find leaks, games confirmed to be joining, and whats leaving.PS Plus April 2025 free games reveal dateThePS Plus April 2025 Essential free games should be revealed on March 26th.Sony typically pulls the curtain aside on the next batch of games the final Wednesday prior to the start of the next month.As for when the Essential selection will be released, SonysPlayStation Blogpost for March confirms that they will come out on April 1st. The Extra and Premium additions should then be revealed on April 9thbefore releasing on the 15th.PS Plus April 2025 free games confirmedThere are two games confirmed for PS Plus April 2025. These are Blue Prince arriving on April 10th, and Lost Records Bloom and Rage Tape 2 arriving on April 15th, both for Extra and Premium.Blue Prince is incredibly exciting as it is a day-one release, and it is considered a GOTY contender by former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment,Shuhei Yoshida.Meanwhile, Lost Records Bloom and Rage Tape 2 is another day-one release, and Extra subscribers can play Tape 1 right now to get ready. Its another episodic narrative adventure game, and its from the creators of the much beloved Life is Strange series.In addition to all of the above, Sony has confirmed another big day-one release joining their subscription service in the summer.PS Plus April 2025 leakA possibleleak for PS Plus Premium April 2025 is Wall.E.A Taiwan rating for this classic was previously leaked byGematsu, and now itstrophieshave leaked online, too.In addition to revealing the trophies, the leak also reports we are getting the PS2 version of the Disney classic. This is fantastic news as Gematsu were previously unsure if we were getting the PS2 or PSP version, and the PS2 version should be the superior one.While its inevitable Wall.E is joining Sonys Premium subscription tier, its possible it joins at a later time in the future.Games leavingBelow is the list of games leaving PS Plus:Dragon Age Veilguard (Essential)Sonic Colors Ultimate (Essential)Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection (Essential)Animal Well (Extra)Tales of Kenzera Zau (Extra)Nour Play With Your Food (Extra)Deliver Us Mars (Extra)Misama Chronicles (Extra)Stray Blade (Extra)Kena Bridge of the Spirits (Extra)Slay The Spire (Extra)The Essential games will depart on April 1st, meanwhile, all of the Extras will leave and be replaced on April 15th.In other gaming news, Arrowhead has released the Helldivers 2 update 01.002.201 patch notes.Subscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

Sales of new Tesla cars slumped in Europe last month in the latest indication of a potential buyer backlash over Elon Musks high profile and controversial behaviour since becoming a leading figure in Donald Trumps administration.The Texas-based electric carmaker sold less than 16,000 vehicles across Europe last month, down 44% on average across 25 countries in the EU, the UK, Norway and Switzerland, according to data compiled by the research platform Jato Dynamics.Teslas market share fell to 9.6% last month, the lowest it has registered in February for five years. In January, its sales across Europe fell 45%, from 18,161 in 2024 to 9,945.However, in the UK the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders reported an almost 21% rise in the number of new Tesla cars registered in February, with the Model 3 and Model Y proving the second and third most popular after the Mini Cooper.Analysts and investors have been attempting to assess what impact Musks political interventions are having on the carmaker, where he is chief executive, amid signs that his senior role in Trumps administration is leading to a consumer backlash by some Tesla owners or prospective buyers. Tesla dealerships have also been the target of protests.The tech billionaire and close Trump adviser has shown support for Germanys far-right AfD party, theatrically brandished a chainsaw for bureaucracy at a conservative conference, and accused Keir Starmer and other senior politicians of covering up the scandal about grooming gangs.However, analysts have said that the volatile sales are also likely to have been affected by Teslas overhaul of the Model Y.Felipe Munoz, a global analyst at Jato Dynamics, said: Tesla is experiencing a period of immense change. In addition to Elon Musks increasingly active role in politics and the increased competition it is facing within the EV market, the brand is phasing out the existing version of the Model Y its bestselling vehicle before it rolls out the update.Brands like Tesla, which have a relatively limited model lineup, are particularly vulnerable to registration declines when undertaking a model changeover.The research companys figures for February show that Teslas rivals powered ahead in Europe last month.Volkswagen reported a 180% increase in sales of battery electric vehicles to just under 20,000, while BMW and Mini sold a combined 19,000 such models last month.The Chinese-owned BYD recorded a 94% increase in sales in Europe to more than 4,000. Separate figures show that BYDs global sales topped $100bn (83bn) last year, overtaking Tesla as the worlds biggest electric car company by revenue.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Business TodayFree daily newsletterGet set for the working day we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionBYD, which last beat Tesla on global annual revenues in 2018, reported revenues of 777bn yuan (86bn) in 2024, a 29% year-on-year increase, beating analyst estimates. Tesla reported annual revenues of $97.7bn last year.BYD also sells about the same number of electric vehicles as Tesla 1.76m compared with 1.79m respectively in 2024. However, when sales of BYDs other hybrid cars are included it is much larger.Polestar, which is primarily owned by Volvos parent company, Geely, recorded an 84% increase to more than 2,000 vehicles.BYD sold 4.27m vehicles last year, almost as many as the 4.5m sold by Ford, and has forecast that it will sell between 5m and 6m this year. The Hong Kong-listed company has a market value of about $160bn, up about 50% so far this year. Tesla is valued at $780bn despite a share-price plunge of more than a third in 2025. Tesla shares opened up 6% on Monday as the wider Nasdaq index rose nearly 2%.Total car sales in across the 25 EU markets, the UK, Norway and Switzerland dropped by 3% to 970,000 in February, while BEV registrations were up by a quarter.

Off the CombolendarThat new Street Fighter movie has reportedly been pulled from Sony's upcoming release calendar, so it looks to be back in the release date-less voidAll may well not be lost though - we'll have to stay tuned to see if it gets re-scheduled down the line.Image credit: Capcom News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on March 25, 2025 The new Street Fighter movie that was first announced back in 2023 looks to be without a release date again, as Sony's reportedly taken the film off its calendar of upcoming releases, meaning it looks like it won't be dropping on the previously announced date of March 20, 2026. Instead, we'll just have to wait and see if it's re-scheduled at some point in the future.According to Variety, this change came as part of some wider tweaks by Sony to its list of upcoming movies that've been penned in for specific dates. Those tweaks also saw upcoming Tommy Wirkola shark thriller Beneath the Storm be re-named Shiver and have its date moved from August 2025 to July 2026, just a few months after the SF movie was previously set to drop.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. It's maybe something we could have seen coming a bit, given that this SF movie from Legendary and Capcom has had a bit of a fun behind-the-scenes lifespan so far. Originally pencilled-in directors Danny and Michael Philippou (Talk To Me) were revealed to have departed the project in summer 2024, leaving it looking for someone else to full that role.That happened last month, with Kitao Sakurai of Eric Andre Show fame being reported to have come on board as a fresh director. The question was how much work had been done on the film while the search had been happening, if it was still going to hit that March 2026 release date. With this change, it looks possible that the answer was not enough.That's not neccessarily a bad thing, assuming the movie does get re-scheduled by Sony for a different date at some point in the future. Giving Sakurai a bit more time to put together something that matches his/the team's vision, rather than having to rush to make sure a rapidly approaching and already set date is hit, sounds like it could be a good plan. I won't dig out the famous Shigeru Miyamoto quote about delayed games that he, er, might not have actually said, but yeah.Here's hoping it does get a new date soon, and that it ends up being as much of a hit as Street Fighter 6, which our fighting game gremlins at VG247 thought was pretty rad.

Today is the biggest day in Monster Hunter Wilds brief history since the games monumentous launch. Capcom is bringing back its Showcase series to deliver all the remaining information about the games first major patch. Read more

Image: Nintendo LifeThere's nothing like a bit of patent discussion to get us Nintendo fans all excited, eh? While the latest legal bagsy from the Big N isn't quite as juicy as the potential hardware features we've seen in recent weeks, it does speak to a visual style that combines the worlds of 3D and 2D and no, that doesn't necessarily mean HD-2D remakes are in the pipeline (thanks, Nintendo Wire).Patent US 2025/0090952 was approved in the US on 20th March 2025 under the catchy little title 'Non-Transitory Computer-Readable Storage Medium Having Game Program Stored Therein, Game System, Game Processing Method, and Game Apparatus'. That makes no sense, we know, but the central thrust of it describes a program that can render a 3D virtual space in a way that feels two-dimensional.This objective is achieved through a number of different steps, all of which are wrapped up in the near-incomprehensible legal speak that we've come to expect from patents. From what we can make out, a new approach to shadows is the driving force behind the visual style, with the program capable of doing all sorts of fancy things with Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) to render block shadows on background objects. These appear to ignore the distance between a player character and the object it is casting its shadow on, forming an illusion where the 3D space is 'flattened' but the impression of depth is maintained, "not only the shadow but also the object itself can be rendered in a 2D manner".This 'flattening' is also seemingly applied to the sprites themselves, with the patent stating that the program could "deform and render a predetermined object so as to make a normal vector thereof closer to a direction toward a position of the virtual camera" "normal vector," in this instance, being how the depth of the character interacts with lighting and shadows.Images: NintendoNaturally, the accompanying diagrams in the patent do little to explain specific instances where this program could be used, though we've heard rumblings online of people linking the described depth impressions and 2D/3D interaction to something similar to Square Enix's HD-2D visual style. The following tweet from YouTuber Mike Odyssey, for example, muses on how the tech could be used to revamp the 2D visuals of A Link to the Past in a future remake.Now, as much as we like the thought of seeing Nintendo classics like Super Mario World, Super Metroid and ALTTP brought back in an HD-2D style, it feels like a bit of a stretch to jump to that conclusion from this patent. The technology described, to us, feels much closer to something we've seen in the Paper Mario series than any hint of a new remake style.As pointed out by Nintendo Wire, it's also worth bearing in mind that Nintendo has applied for similar patents in the past (the same name can be found on US filings from 2022 and 2023). These former applications both contain diagrams which appear far more in line with something like Paper Mario or Mario Kart Tour than the remake speculation.But this is Nintendo! There's no guarantee when or if this patent will crop up in first-party software, but we'll certainly be keeping an eye on the shadows in the Switch 2 line-up. What a resolutionChatter up!What do you think this patent could be used for? Is an HD-2D style likely or is it too vague? Let us know in the comments.[source ppubs.uspto.gov, via nintendowire.com]Share:02 Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesRumour: A Switch 1 Direct Presentation May Take Place This WeekColour us sceptical, thoughPSA: Gold Points For Nintendo Switch Purchases Are Now DiscontinuedUpdate: The Golden age is over

"Ill show myself out.".Often regarded as one of the greatest writers in modern literature, Stephen King has produced novels that have gone down in history as some of the best horror stories of all time. The Stand, IT, Pet Semetery, The Shining, Carrie... Chances are that if you haven't read these stories or seen the TV/movie adaptations, then you've almost certainly heard of them.But when it comes to cracking jokes on social media, even Mr. King himself would readily admit that he has some work to do. Case in point, the author posted a Pokmon joke to BlueSky recently that he immediately stated was "not very good".Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Commonwealth Fusion Systems marked a major milestone Tuesday morning, announcing the installation of a key component of its Sparc demonstration reactor.The new part is a 24-foot wide, 75-ton stainless steel circle that forms the foundation of the tokamak, the doughnut-shaped heart of a fusion reactor that CFS hopes will be the first of its kind to generate more power than it consumes. Called the cryostat base, it was made in Italy and shipped halfway around the world to CFSs site in Devens, Massachusetts.It is the first piece of the actual fusion machine, Alex Creely, director of tokamak operations at CFS, told TechCrunch. Work at the site has been underway now for more than three years as the company constructs the buildings and machinery that will support the reactors core.Its a big deal for us, because it means were transitioning into a new stage of the project where were not building an industrial facility were still doing that a bit but were also now building the actual tokamak itself, he said.CFS is one of many startups that have emerged in recent years to pursue fusion power, which promises to deliver gigawatts of pollution free electricity from a hydrogen fuel derived from seawater. Investors have been counting on the technology to meet future power needs, which are skyrocketing as heavy users like electric vehicles and data centers proliferate.The company, which is backed by Bill Gatess Breakthrough Energy Ventures among other investors, is widely considered to be one of the best prospects to prove whether fusion power is commercially feasible. The company announced in December that its first commercial-scale reactor will be located outside Richmond, Virginia.Sparc is expected to come online in 2027, and if it works as CFS anticipates, it could be the first tokamak to produce more power than it takes to run. So far, only the Department of Energys National Ignition Facility has been able to hit so-called scientific break even in a string of successful experiments, the first of which occurred in December 2022.But the NIFs reactor differs significantly from CFSs, using lasers to compress a fuel pellet to fusion conditions. CFSs tokamak uses magnets to herd 100 million degree C plasma into a tight doughnut shape, confining and compressing it until fusion occurs.Tokamaks use superconducting magnets to generate the powerful magnetic fields required to coral the plasma. Those magnets need to be cooled to 253 degrees C using liquid helium. The cryostat helps maintain those frigid conditions, acting like a thermos by insulating it from ambient temperatures. The cryostat base is basically like the bottom of the thermos, Creely said.Just like someone receiving an Amazon package, CFS had to unbox and inspect the cryostat base before installing it. But unlike an e-commerce package that takes a few seconds to open, it took the CFS team a few days to remove the shipping material and another week just to make sure that nothing got damaged in shipping, Creely said.The CFS team then moved the cryostat base to the tokamak hall, where precisely placed bolts protruded from the concrete foundation awaiting the stainless steel disk. Then you grout it in, he said.Alongside the cryostat base, work continues on the other three major pieces of the tokamak, which will be assembled simultaneously into their final configuration either late this year or early next year. After that, CFS will ensure all the pieces are working together as planned, a process known as commissioning that will take months.This is the first of a kind, Creely said. Theres not just like an on button and it turns on.

Waymo said Tuesday it will begin offering robotaxi rides via the Waymo One app in Washington D.C. in 2026. Before it can launch commercially, the company will have to up its lobbying game in the capitol, where autonomous vehicle permits still require a human behind the wheel.The news from Waymo comes as the Alphabet-owned company aggressively expands its robotaxi coverage to cement its lead ahead of potential competitors like Amazons Zoox and Elon Musks Tesla. Musk said Tesla will launch a robotaxi service in Austin this summer and California at some point this year.Waymo already operates a commercial service in Phoenix, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and more recently Austin, in partnership with ride-hail firm Uber. Waymo also intends to launch a robotaxi service via Uber in Atlanta this year, and has already begun ferrying employees in fully autonomous vehicles in the city. Miami is next on Waymos public launch list for 2026, alongside D.C.To raise even more enthusiasm and awareness, Waymo has said it plans to begin mapping in 10 cities this year, including Las Vegas, San Diego, and, as of Monday, Nashville.Waymos D.C. announcement comes two months after the company launched a small test fleet of its Jaguar I-Pace robotaxis in the city, where its been driving manually and testing autonomously with a safety driver behind the wheel.Waymos business model is contingent upon removing the human driver from the vehicle. The company said it will work with policymakers to update the districts permitting rules to allow for fully autonomous vehicles to drive on public roads.

Lynch Architects renovation andextension of Westminster Coroners Court reintroduces death in the city while paying particular attention to the needs of the bereavedRachel Elliott of Lynch Architects is shortlisted for the MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice 2024. Find out more about the W Awards hereWestern culture does not seemto be growing any less squeamish about death. Not for us the towers of silence, or dakhma, of Zoroastrianism, where the dead are left in soaring stone structures for vultures to consume. Passing on in Britain today is perhaps even more taboo than it was for the Victorians, with their jetblack mourning jewellery and widows weeds.With the silhouette of a little Queen Anne house and the colouring and magpielike architectural expression of late Victorian civic values, Westminster Coroners Court was built in 1893 to the designs of municipal architect and surveyor, GRW Wheeler. Themain function of the building, which lies not far from the UKs Houses of Commons and Lords, is a firstfloor courtroom with acoved ceiling and skylight hidden from view by the domestic front of a hipped roof. In the 1990s, an anonymous mortuary was added to the rear, while to the side an innocentlooking taxi rank doubles as overspill space in the event of terror incidents like the 2018 Westminster Bridge attack or tragedies such as the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire.The buildings original purpose to investigate the circumstances of unexplained deaths remains unchanged. In recent decades, Westminster Coroners Court hasbeen used by four London boroughs to process some of the around 200,000 deaths reported annually to coroners across England and Wales. Around 40 per cent ofthese require inquests a procedure that involves bereaved people, witnesses, police, lawyers and sometimes jurors (the salacious nature of some cases attracts paparazzi like flies to jam). What have shifted since 1893, along with perceptions of thestate, are attitudes to the needs of thebereaved, something architect Patrick Lynch has written about in relation to hisown experience of a coroners court following thedeath of his father in a 1992 accident.The job of extending and renovating the Grade IIlisted building was won by Lynch Architects in 2016. What was needed was an additional courtroom, an improved entrance sequence, dedicated waiting spaces, more meeting rooms and modern office space. Project architect Rachel Elliott has been with the job since the beginning, attending competition interviews with Lynch shortly before maternity leave and returning to seethe building through design development tolast summers practical completion (by which time her child was well advanced at primary school).Lynch Architects urbanminded response to an ostensibly practical brief was to offset the Victorian aedicule with the monumental (and far more ancient) counterpoint of a barrelvaulted tomb or stone sarcophagus a move that unequivocally introduces the spectre of death into the teeming life of thecity. From Horseferry Road today, theundeniably tombstonelike face of thepalenew volume ghosts the red brick and Portland stone banding of the old structure in two cuts of Jura limestone, aseam formed millions of years ago.A dimly lit, timberlined space offers a cavelike embrace to the bereavedAccessed from the original front door andbreaking through the existing west wall, thenew wing comprises a tall, barrelvaulted courtroom with a zincclad roof above offices and a waiting area a dimly lit, timberlined space offering a cavelike embrace to the bereaved. Here, the 19thcentury memorial symbolism of a truncated stone column, speaking of life cut short, is borrowed to provide a prop or leaning postfor people unmoored by grief and circumstance. Aleitmotif of arches emanating from Lynchand Elliotts first readings of thesite,including the main elevations projecting apse of window seat, isextended through new and remodelled interiors to signal key spaces and routes. The architects wanted people to be aware of transitioning from old to new; this is achieved at ground level by the marker of a line of exposed CLT columns running through the new openplan office space. Upstairs, openings through theold fabric to the new corridor link are arched and colonnaded, facing off against the limestoneclad wall of the courtroom in atall channel. Passing through to the court, the eye might catch a line from Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, Wordsworths odeto London, chiselled in cursive script high up on the wall like a frieze. The lofty character of the inner chamber, which can besubdivided to accommodate different scales and styles of hearing, echoes the calm, toplit dignity of the original court, including its cloak of timber panelling. Outside, the whole is flanked by a pair ofnew secluded gardens, offering space for finding composure alongside flowing water and greenery. (To provide mourning space for the Grenfell bereaved, the eastern garden was accelerated as a separate contract in 2018.) The shadow gap of glazed link that connects old and new was set deeper during design development at the suggestion of Westminsters planners and Historic England. It was a good call, and one of very few comments. Now you can see the corners of both buildings clearly, says Elliott.Soon after the commission became public, artist Brian Clarke contacted the architects with the offer of customdesigned stained glass. Like Lynch, Clarke had experienced the inside of coroner courts, not least as executor for artist Francis Bacon, and had strong views on how user experience might be improved. The stained glass is a way of elevating a secular building, of adding a dimension, comments Elliott. Clarkes panels, evocative of flora that might be found in cemeteries or left by graves, are employed to inject poetry and privacy at key junctures: the ends of the glazed link, the family waiting room, and as a glowing, westfacing triptych in the courtroom. Incorporating a gift into a contractual situation was actually quite tricky, observes Elliott. For the art to be fundamental to the building, the points where the architecture and stained glass meet were important in terms of detailing.In contrast to protracted groundworks involving sheetpiling of the entire site, the buildings CLT structure from Eurban went up in five days during the summer of 2023, with an accuracy and speed Elliott describes as incredibly satisfying. By March 2024, thenew build was watertight and the internal openings could be punched through. Changing attitudes and legislation after the Grenfell tragedy meant that fire engineering was the projects biggest challenge, according to Elliott. Although one cost consultant did suggest that the stone cladding be omitted from the rear of the extension because only the dead in the adjacent mortuary would notice.Elliott studied at Glasgows Mackintosh School of Architecture in the era of Isi Metzstein and Andy MacMillan, where, shesays, the social purpose of architecture was deeply instilled. Her postqualification experience at van Heyningen & Haward Architects fuelled afurther line of interest in working with historic fabric, leading toaccreditation as anRIBA Conservation Architect as well as aBuilding History masters at Cambridge. AtWestminster Coroners Court, Elliotts work contributed to embedding the spirit of an architectural concept deep into the design development and execution of a newbuild and restoration hybrid, ensuring that the quality of spatial and emotional experience befits the weight and substance of the buildings ongoing public duty. Over time, moving stories of personal encounters with the new building and its stainedglass illuminated spaces willno doubt emerge as part of Londons collective consciousness. Interms of the social mores of death in the city, I would suggest that postoccupancy evaluation might take another century or so.

Alexander - stock.adobe.comNewsScottish police hold almost no data on facial recognition useIt is currently impossible to assess Police Scotlands use of retrospective facial recognition for efficacy and fairness because the force does not collect meaningful information that would enable a proper evaluation BySebastian Klovig Skelton,Data & ethics editorPublished: 25 Mar 2025 11:24 It is not possible to assess the reliability, efficacy and fairness of Police Scotlands retrospective facial recognition (RFR) use because the force does not conduct any audits or performance assessments, says Scottish biometrics commissioner Brian Plastow.While live facial recognition (LFR) uses cameras to scan public spaces and crowds to identify people in real time by matching their faces against a database of images compiled by police, RFR can be applied to any already-captured images retroactively.Unlike LFR, which is used overtly with specially equipped cameras atop a visibly marked police van, police RFR use is much more covert, and can be applied to footage or images behind closed doors without any public knowledge the surveillance has taken place.While Police Scotland regularly uses RFR search capabilities, it is yet to deploy LFR.According to a joint assurance review published by Plastow and His Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland on 25 March 2025, Police Scotland does not currently collect, store, or analyse specific data to assess the effectiveness of its RFR technology, and holds extraordinarily little data on the systems overall performance.For example, the review noted there is no information on how many RFR identifications led to successful outcomes, such as arrests or resolved cases, or how accurate the technology is.This includes no information on the rate of false positives and negatives, in the absence of which, it is not possible to assess the reliability, effectiveness, and fairness of the system, the review stated.With the information available, the review found that between April 2023 and March 2024, Police Scotland carried out 3,813 RFR searches of the UKs Police National Database (PND), and 193 searches via the Child Abuse Image Database (CAID). However, across both databases, a potential match was found in just 2% of cases.For comparison, the Metropolitan Police carried out 31,078 searches via the PND over the same period, while Greater Manchester Police carried out 5,290, although the review did not contain information on what percentage of these forces searches resulted in a match.The review also found that while Police Scotlands general use of the PND is audited, the force conducts no audits of its RFR use and has conducted no post-implementation review of its effectiveness.In combination with the complete lack of evaluation, the review highlighted that Police Scotland still does not have a clear roadmap setting out its long-term vision or strategy for using biometric technologies.Not conducting evaluation, and not having a strategy makes it difficult for Police Scotland to know which technologies it should use (or not use) and which it should invest in (or not invest in), it said. The absence of any published evaluation makes it difficult for the public to understand whether these are effective policing tools.Police Scotland is currently aiming to have a biometrics policy in place by the end of October 2025.The review also identified issues around the quality of custody image photos, the poor resolution of which makes them unsuitable for use in facial recognition searches.A sizeable portion of custody images are not searchable under PND facial search functionality, it stated. This gap could mean that people who have had their custody image previously taken are not being detected on future probe images uploaded by Police Scotland, which could lead to crimes not being detected.Police Scotland said a software issue was causing the custody images to be captured at a lower-than-recommended minimum size, which, in combination with further compression, is making them unusable.Extreme caution must be exercised with any retrospective ICT fix to uncompress these images. If they cannot be fully restored to their original format, the reliability of the data could be significantly compromised, said Plastow.Police Scotland should ensure this issue is solved, particularly considering the adoption of new systems such as the UK Home Office Strategic Facial Matching Project.To alleviate the issues identified, the review made four recommendations to Police Scotland regarding its use of RFR. This includes developing a bespoke policy on the use of RFR to search PND and CAID; conducting a training needs analysis for all officers and staff regularly working in this area; and improving the collection of data evaluating the effectiveness of Police Scotlands RFR technology.It further recommended that the force improves the resolution of its custody images before taking part in the Home Offices Strategic Facial Matching Project.In an increasingly digital world, the future of law enforcement lies in achieving the right balance between the introduction of new technologies for public safety and safeguarding fundamental rights, said Plastow.For biometrics, public confidence should be maintained with transparency, robust governance and independent oversight. This, along with the issues highlighted in our report, should prompt significant reflection for policing in Scotland.Responding to the findings of the review, assistant chief constable Steve Johnson said: We will consider the Scottish biometrics commissioners recommendations in full, and in the context of the development of our biometrics strategy, policy and standard operating procedures.Our Biometrics Oversight Board is already aware of this issue and is overseeing work to improve the quality of images taken in custody and the collaboration with the Home Office Strategic Facial Matching Project, which mirrors the recommendations.The review also highlighted ongoing issues around the illegal retention of millions of custody images in the PND, which are still being held despite the High Court ruling in 2012 that they must be deleted.While Plastow noted in the review that this means the PND contains hundreds of thousands of illegally retained custody images, the previous biometrics commissionerfor England and Wales, Fraser Sampson, estimated in February 2023that there are probably several million unlawfully held images in the database.The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC)previously confirmed to Computer Weekly in November 2023that a national programme between policing and the Home Office had been launched a month before to ensure consistency and coordination across how police retain, process and then use custody images, particularly forfacial recognitionpurposes.While the joint review acknowledged the existence of this NPCC-led programme, it contained no information on its progress.As it stands, there are over 19 million custody images in PND, 16 million of which are enrolled in the databases RFR search gallery although a high number of duplicates means it is unknown how many individuals are included in the data.Police Scotlands lack of management information is not limited to its use of RFR.In February 2025, a separate review by Plastow into the use of DNA data by Scottish policing bodies found they are failing to properly record and publish data on the ethnicity of arrested people, meaning there is no way of establishing whether minority groups are over-represented in policing databases.During our fieldwork, the Scottish Police Authority [SPA] Forensic Services and Police Scotland were unable to provide us with any reliable management information on the ethnicity of anyone held within the Scottish DNA Database, as the database is nearly 30 years old and was not designed to record this information, said Plastow at the time.The fact that SPA Forensic Services and Police Scotland are failing to properly record and publish data on the ethnicity of arrested people whose biometric data is then held is concerning, against the context of the former and current chief constables having stated publicly that issues of institutional racism persist within Police Scotland.Accordingly, we have been unable to establish whether there is any over-representation on the grounds of ethnicity or any other protected characteristic in Scotland.Read more about facial recognition technologyDriving licence data could be used for police facial recognition: The governments Crime and Policing Bill could allow police to access the UK driving licence database for use in facial recognition watchlists, but the Home Office denies biometric data would be repurposed in this way.Met Police challenged on claim LFR supported by majority of Lewisham residents: A community impact assessment for the Met Polices deployment of live facial-recognition tech in Lewisham brings into question the forces previous claims to Computer Weekly that its use of the technology is supported by the majority of residents.Police defend facial recognition target selection to Lords: Senior police officers confirm to Lords committee that facial recognition watchlist image selection is based on crime categories attached to peoples photos, rather than a context-specific assessment of the threat presented by a given individual.In The Current Issue:Can a future digital NHS survive another change?Digital twins drive efficiency across machines and infrastructureDownload Current IssueSLM Series: Pryon - Mastering RAG implementation CW Developer NetworkSLM series - Qodea: A jumpstart for multi-model AI strategies CW Developer NetworkView All Blogs