ILR holder-finger print returning at UK airports?

[jumpingzombie]

Hello, everyone.
It's the first time to post in this category of thread.(I'm usually on EEA route threads)

A friend of mine has got ILR.
She traveled to a non-EEA country, and she was required to record her finder print at one of the UK airports when she got back here last week. She says it had never happened before, so we wonder if its the new system implemented at boarder controls in the UK recently.
She stayed in the non-EEA country just for a couple of weeks.

I'm an EEA resident card holder, so I'm not familiar with "British route" things....
Anyone knows about it?

[linkers]

It's a common practice and not something new. Every BRP holder has to give finger prints so the IO can verify it's the same person who was originally issued the BRP.

There is no point of storing the finger prints on the chip (BRP) in the first place if no-one is ever going to match them.