The Home Office has been urged by MPs to break with its “toxic record of failure” and end the “near total secrecy” of how AI is being used in the immigration system.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) programmes are currently being used in the processing of asylum claims, and tools are being developed to predict the age of small boat migrants based on their facial features.

Spot-checks carried out within the Home Office on the use of AI to summarise interview transcripts with asylum seekers found that the tool was failing basic accuracy tests, The Independent revealed this month.

Campaigners, who are researching how AI has been embedded in the UK’s immigration system, have accused the government of stonewalling information requests and releasing limited details of how the technology is being used.

Cross-party MPs are also pushing the Home Office for transparency, saying officials were dodging accountability.

Labour MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, said: “The Home Office must publish the equality and data protection…