13.03.14
Councils still using ‘controversial’ lie-detector technology
Councils across England are spending millions of pounds on controversial voice risk analysis (VRA) software in an effort to catch benefit fraudsters, a freedom of information (FoI) request has revealed.
Figures from the FoI request – submitted to more than 200 local authorities by False Economy, a trade-union funded campaign group – revealed that 24 councils have been using the lie-detector technology, which many experts argue doesn’t even work.
Back in 2010, following a two-year pilot scheme involving £1.5m of government investment, it stopped supporting the use of VRA systems by councils.
False Economy told the Guardian: “It says a lot about council outsourcing – and the benefits-bashing agenda – that this pseudo-scientific gimmick is now making its way in through the back door.”
Back in 2007, Swedish researcher Francisco Lacerda– co-author of a paper in the International Journal of Speech, Language and Law, concluded that there was “no evidence” the software works.
He added that he was surprised it was still being used because of the “very good work done by the DWP in the UK showing it did not work”.
Peter Fleming, who chairs the Local Government Association’s improvement board, said in a statement to the Guardian that the system was used “as part of a wider range of methods to identify cases which may need closer scrutiny” and would not be used as the sole basis for prosecution.
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