What happened

The UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has been analysing data from individuals with criminal convictions, including sensitive information like self-harm incidents, addiction struggles, and disability status, in order to develop a "murder prediction" system capable of identifying people most likely to commit murder. 

However, civil rights group Statewatch revealed through FOI requests that the system - initially called the "homicide prediction project" and since renamed "sharing data to improve risk assessment" - could also use data from crime victims and those never convicted of offences.

The discovery is seen to raise questions about potential loss of privacy, increased surveillance, racial bias and the erosion of civil liberties, particularly amongst marginalised communities.

Why it happened

The MoJ claims the project seeks to improve existing risk assessment tools, notably OASys, which are already used to predict the possibility of criminals reoffending when approaching prison release.

OASys has previously demonstrated racial bias in predicting reoffending.