NEC's System NEOface is not being used by Scotland yard AFAIK,...

NEC's System NEOface is not being used by Scotland yard AFAIK, it is however associated with South Wales Police (which by the intellectual standards of this site is close enough I imagine) and has indeed come under heavy criticism. There is no evidence it is inferior to Studio, as there is no evidence that BRN managed to sell even a single copy of Studio at a commerical price as LDN hinted in his famous lowlights specch. Rather it seems, as you would expect, that Scotland Yard have trialled multiple systems, it just seems that they haven't found one that is any good yet, despite having a supposed long term relationship with BRN. This is not conclusive, merely suggestive.

It is also quite possible that SNN were telling the truth when they said their new biometric system was better than BRN's tech, given the largely unexplained virtually 100% attrition rate of BRN in other projects the claim does not seem outlandish, despite the obvious financial motive.

Equally nonsensical is the claim the BRN do not wish for investment from any industry powerhouse, which would hugely boost their credibility and the interest of potential customers, because they wish to maintain their "independence" and use a CN instead. This sort of nonsense is routinely trotted out about high risk tech co's who struggle to attract investment. The idea that a placing at 6p is a reward to investor (rather than the best they thought they could get away with) is yet another price of wishful thinking. Let's hope if the takeup is not great the left over shares are indeed taken up by institutions, because if not there are likely to be problems.