Tough new controls over video monitoring expected

VIDEO: Tough new controls over video monitoring expected; likely to affect corner shops, publicly accessible areas of office buildings, sports, retail, entertainment and leisure facilities IN BRIEF: A concerted effort seems to have begun to impose greater controls on the use of video monitoring systems that cover areas to which the public has access. Small shops, open office areas, sports, retail and entertainment facilities are just some of the premises likely to be affected. A new jointlydeveloped ACPO / Home Office initiative will seek to impose a requirement for registration of such systems, as well as training and licencing requirements on their owners/operators. The Information Commissioner has revealed that small video systems are now to be brought within the scope of its Data Protection Act enforcement programme. And the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has begun an inquiry into the UK’s ‘surveillance society’. Explains Graeme Gerrard, Assistant Chief Constable of Cheshire and coarchitect of the ACPO / Home Office project, “There is a limited infringement of Human Rights with CCTV and there is a recognition that not everyone should be able to do it unless they have been registered to do so.” Government is proposing tough new curbs on the use of small video monitoring systems. Simultaneously, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has revealed new plans to require small video systems to be registered under the Data Protection Act. Both new levels of control will apply to any video monitoring system that views areas to which the public has access. This is likely to include small corner shops, publicly accessible areas of office buildings, sports, retail, entertainment and leisure facilities. The new Government measures form part of a wider attempt to regulate the use of public-space CCTV monitoring. They are contained within proposals in a soonto-be-published National CCTV Strategy, developed jointly by ACPO and the Home Office. Graeme Gerrard, Assistant Chief Constable of Cheshire, is one of the architects of the National CCTV Strategy document. Gerrard says, “After the London bombings [of 7/7] there was a recognition at the highest levels of government of the importance of CCTV.” However, says Gerrard, “There is a limited infringement of Human Rights with CCTV and there is a recognition that not everyone should be able to do it unless they have been registered to do so.” The proposals outlined in the Strategy – which will apply only to those video systems and users that monitor publicly-accessible areas – include a requirement for such video monitoring system owners to be licenced and registered, for the establishment of a national database of such video monitoring cameras, and to require image recordings to be of sufficient quality to be ‘fit for purpose’.
“Anywhere where CCTV is in place in areas where the public has access would be covered,” confirms Gerrard. “It would probably go down as far as the corner shop.” In a parallel development, the ICO is poised to publish its long-awaited revision of its Data Protection CCTV Code of Practice. This, it seems, will reverse previous ICO guidance, to re-include smaller video/CCTV users within scope of the Data Protection Act – requiring such small system users to register with the ICO and conform to the requirements of the Act. Explains the ICO’s Deputy Commissioner Jonathan Bamford, “We will be taking a wider view of what is caught by the Data Protection Act. There is the possibility for small CCTV users such as shopkeepers to be caught. That will be a big change.” Another new element in the revision of the Code of Practice relates to the issue of ‘adequacy’. There will be a new requirement that a video system is adequate for the purpose it is intended. “The data that you hold better be able to do the job,” says Bamford. “If you are recording CCTV images – and the intention is that the law enforcement authorities may wish to use those images in court – then they’d better be of quality so that they can. “If the images aren’t of sufficient quality, then you’d better not be recording,” adds Bamford. “The Code of Practice is something that is supposed to bring the Data Protection Act to life in various circumstances,” he says. “It needs to be effective, but it also needs to be achievable. And it has to be something that inspires public confidence in the continued use of CCTV.” The ICO’s CCTV Code of Practice, the Small User CCTV Checklist and the Additional Guidance will all be replaced by the new revision of the Code. * In addition to these developments, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has recently announced an inquiry into the UK’s so-called ‘surveillence society.’ One of main focal points of the inquiry will be the use of CCTV/video monitoring and the Committee will investigate the case for introducing a new sort of risk assessment, developed specifically for public surveillance called a ‘privacy impact assessment’. In According to the Committee, the inquiry will look at how surveillance activities that ‘offer the potential to play a part in the fight against crime’ – such as CCTV/video and its associated technologies – may impinge on individual liberty. Output from the Government inquiry is likely to include new proposals for the control of surveillance in public areas.
ACTION POINT: These are very significant developments for installers and operators of video and CCTV systems. CCTV system installers should follow developments closely and make their views known to their professional body. However, the full extent of the new controls will not become clear until publication of the National CCTV Strategy document and the ICO’s Data Protection CCTV Code of Practice revision. The ACPO / Home Office National CCTV Strategy document is expected to be published before the summer, but in what form exactly is not yet known. The Home Office website can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk The ICO’s revised Data Protection CCTV Code of Practice is currently in final draft form and is expected to be published, following a 12-week consultation period, sometime around September. When published, the Code is likely to be downloadable from the ICS’s document library at: http://www.ico.gov.uk/tools_and_resources/document_library.aspx The home page of the ICO’s website is at: http://www.ico.gov.uk For more information about the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee surveillance inquiry visit: http://www.parliament.uk/homeaffairscom