Number plate recognition will be used to tackle serious criminality rather than snare traffic offenders, a minister has said.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology has been in use in the UK for some time and helps police track down vehicles they are after or find out information on the vehicle’s owner quickly.

At the House of Keys sitting this week, Justice and Home Affairs Minister Jane Poole-Wilson was asked by Arbory, Castletown and Malew, MHK Jason Moorhouse what progress has been made with the introduction of ANPR.

Mrs Poole-Wilson told the house She said ANPR would be used to target organised and serious criminality, such as drug and people trafficking rather than to enforce traffic offences.

She said: ‘The department is preparing an order that the UK national ANPR standards will be adopted and adapted for the island where needed.

‘It is important to say that the Chief Constable views ANPR primarily as a valuable intelligence gathering tool to target serious criminality rather than solely as a tool to detect motoring offences or enforce traffic regulations.

‘This aligns with our aim to keep the island safe, targeting those who attempt to come to our island to traffic drugs or people.

But she did concede the technology could be used to tackle other types of criminality and that deploying the technology would be ‘an operational matter for the Chief Constable’.

When asked when then new regulations would be introduced and the technology used Mrs Poole-Wilson said she could not commit to an exact time when the order will be brought forward but it was a ‘priority’ for the department and ‘we are actively working on this to progress it as quickly as we can’.

She said: ‘I do not have a fixed time for when this order will be introduced but this is a priority and we are actively working on this to progress it as quickly as we can.’

The technology would be initially deployed at the main port but could also be fitted to operational police vehicles