The British government published a request for tender seeking £450,000 (approximately $588,000) worth of mobile biometric enrollment devices to decrease its dependence on wet ink fingerprint capture.

The contract notice says the UK’s Home Office department is seeking a single supplier that can deliver 150 mobile biometric enrollment devices over three years and a requirement to cover maintenance and support for the devices for a minimum of three years. There is also an option to extend the contract by two 12-month periods for ongoing support services.

The government expects the solution to consist of a fingerprint scanner with machine-readable zone (MRZ) functionality and compatibility with Android smartphones and an electronic notebook application. It also asks for a software development kit for integration with Android smartphones used by the Home Office.

Reducing the need for wet ink capture of fingerprints and enabling connectivity to the Home Office’s biometric database to digitally enroll fingerprints and other biometric data is stated as the purpose of the contract notice.

The Home Office will accept tenders and requests to participate until May 13, 2022, and invite a maximum of four candidates.

Police in a dozen UK jurisdictions are already using mobile fingerprint biometric scanners from Integrated Biometrics to identify individuals without first transporting them to a station.