Professor Marion Oswald

Marion's research focuses on the interaction between law and digital technology, and involves multi-disciplinary collaboration and doctrinal, empirical and conceptual methodologies.  Building on her background as a practising lawyer within Government and technology companies, she has developed a particular specialism in the use of digital technologies and big data within policing, national security and the wider public sector.  

She is PI of the 4-year UKRI-funded Responsible AI UK Keystone project 'PROBabLE Futures - Probabilistic AI in Law Enforcement Futures' and PI of the AHRC-funded BRAID scoping project: Ethical review to support Responsible AI in Policing – A Preliminary Study of West Midlands Police's specialist data ethics review committee. From November 2021, Marion will also be working for the Turing Institute as Senior Research Associate supporting the Safe and Ethical AI Programme, focused in particular on criminal justice and national security. 

Marion was awarded an MBE in The Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours list 2022 for services to digital innovation.

Marion is Chair of the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner and West Midlands Police Data Ethics Committee, a member of the New Zealand Police independent advisory panel on emerging technologies, a member of the Home Office-sponsored Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group and a Board member of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub. She is an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the AHRC's peer review college. 

From July 2021 - March 2022, Marion was Specialist Adviser to the Justice and Home Affairs Committee advising the Lords Committee on its inquiry into technologies and the application of the law: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/1272/new-technologies-and-the-application-of-the-law/

From Sep 2021-Sep 23, Marion was appointed to the independent Advisory Board of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, a government expert body focused upon the trustworthy use of data and AI.

Marion was PI and Director of the AHRC-funded 'Observatory for the Monitoring of Data-Driven Approaches to Covid-19' (https://hosting.northumbria.ac.uk/omddac/).

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Assurance of Third-Party AI Systems for UK National Security: Research Report, Powell, R., Oswald, M. 17 Jan 2024
• Bias, Oswald, M., Paul, A. 6 Feb 2024, De Gruyter Handbook of Digital Criminology, Berlin, Germany, De Gruyter
• College of Policing Data Ethics and Data-Driven Technologies APP Consultation: Response from Marion Oswald, Muffy Calder, Kyriakos N. Kotsoglou, Michael Maher, Carole McCartney, Kyle Montague, Claire Paterson-Young and Elizabeth Tiarks on behalf of ‘PROBabLE Futures: Probabilistic AI Systems in Law Enforcement Futures’ Responsible AI UK Keystone Project and Rosamund Powell, Research Associate on behalf of the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security, The Alan Turing Institute, Oswald, M., Calder, M., Kotsoglou, K., Maher, M., McCartney, C., Montague, K., Paterson-Young, C., Tiarks, E., Powell, R. 3 Oct 2024
• Ethical review to support Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) in policing: A preliminary study of West Midlands Police's specialist data ethics review committee, Oswald, M., Paterson-Young, C., McBride, P., Maher, M., Calder, M., Gill, G., Tiarks, E., Noble, W. 11 Sep 2024
• PROBabLE Futures Response to HMICFRS Consultation on Proposed policing inspection programme and framework 2025–29, McCartney, C., Oswald, M., Paterson-Young, C., Kotsoglou, K., Tiarks, E. 25 Oct 2024
• Evaluating (semi)-autonomous systems in policing and national security: A new framework based on the concept of ‘intelligence’: A new matrix framework of evaluation and grading, based on lessons from existing processes designed to define and assess ‘intelligence’, Oswald, M., Chambers, L., Paul, A. 11 Jul 2023, TAS '23, New York, US, ACM
• Exploring Police Perspectives on Algorithmic Transparency: A Qualitative Analysis of Police Interviews in the UK, Zilka, M., Ashurst, C., Chambers, L., Goodmann, E., Ugwudike, P., Oswald, M. 30 Oct 2023, EAAMO '23: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM Conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization, New York, US, ACM
• Privacy Intrusion and National Security in the Age of AI: Assessing proportionality of automated analytics, Janjeva, A., Calder, M., Oswald, M. 23 May 2023
• AI Regulation Policy Paper (CP 728): Response to call for views and evidence, Oswald, M. 23 Sep 2022
• A three-pillar approach to achieving trustworthy and accountable use of AI and emerging technology in policing in England and Wales: Lessons from the West Midlands data ethics model, Oswald, M. 30 Apr 2022, In: European Journal of Law and Technology

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• COVID-19: Observatory for Monitoring Data-Driven Approaches to COVID-19, Oswald, M. (Principal Investigator), UK Research and Innovation, 04/11/20 - 03/11/21, £406,656.00

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Invited talk: 2024 Highlights and 2025 Vision: Reflections and Roadmaps for AI, Skills and Procurement 2024
• Membership of committee: Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group (External organisation) 2024
• Invited talk: Ethics, law and social implications 2023
• Invited talk: AI: clever, clumsy or clueless? 2023
• Invited talk: AI-NEW DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES FOR THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM 2023
• Oral presentation: British and Irish Law Education Technology Association (BILETA) Conference 2023 2023
• Organising a conference, workshop, ...: The Use of AI in Sentencing and the Management of Offenders 2023
• Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Progressing the UK Government’s Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard: Police Perspectives 2023
• Oral presentation: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Information Law and Policy Centre Annual Conference 2022 2022
• Invited talk: Oversight of Police-Use of Surveillance Technology: Workshop hosted by the VUB Chair in Surveillance Studies 2022

• Luke Chambers AI and Machine Learning Nascent Visual Biometrics in Police Intelligence and Criminal Evidence – Impacts on Reliability and Fairness Start Date: 01/10/2021
• Daria Onitiu Deconstructing the right to privacy considering the impact of fashion recommender systems on an individual's autonomy and identity Start Date: 01/10/2019 End Date: 25/06/2022
• Angela Paul Police Use of Data from the Sky: Dissecting the Human Rights Implications Associated with Deploying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in Law Enforcement in England and Wales Start Date: 18/01/2021 End Date: 25/06/2024
• David Powell Innovation to implementation: the critical implementation factors in developing a machine learningforecasting tool to predict reoffending in domestic abuse. Start Date: 01/10/2019 End Date: 20/09/2023
• James Winters Governance strategies for compliant Artificial Intelligence in high-risk industrial contexts: To what extent can internal AI governance frameworks ensure legal and trustworthy AI? Start Date: 01/10/2023

• Law PhD December 17 2020
• Law BA June 26 1991
• Solicitor (non-practising) 1994
• Member Law Society 1992
• Cert(Mang)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. FHEA