Fingerprint scans for meals at ‘Hogwarts’

FINGERPRINT scanning is being introduced at a private school to cut queues in the canteen at lunchtime.

Lesley Franklin, the principal at £12,000-a-year George Heriot’s School, in Edinburgh – believed to have been the inspiration for Hogwarts in J K Rowling’s Harry Potter novels – was at pains to reassure parents in a letter that they need not fear for the safety of their children’s biometric data and offered a four-digit pin to those who refused to have their prints taken.

She wrote: “As part of our new refectory project, we have taken the decision to move to a biometric recognition system for payment of food.

“This will mean that queues are reduced because the rate of identification of customers is quickened. It also means that pupils will no longer have to carry cards – very useful for those pupils who lose them frequently.”

Mrs Franklin stressed that data would not be used by any other organisation for any other reason.