Government appoints an interim CCTV regulator

The Government has appointed a regulator to oversee the use of CCTV technology following growing concern over increasing intrusion into people’s lives by the public and private sectors.

Initially Forensic Science Regulator Andrew Rennison will serve as the interim CCTV Regulator for up to a year, until Parliament appoints a permanent replacement.

The UK now has more CCTV cameras and a bigger National DNA database than any other country. Richard Thomas, the previous Information Commissioner warned that the country was “sleep walking into a surveillance society”.

The House of Lords Constitution Committee also criticised growing public and private surveillance, which it said was damaging the fundamental relationship between Government and the public.

Lord Goodlad, the Committee's chairman said: “There can be no justification for this gradual but incessant creep towards every detail about us being recorded and pored over by the state.”

David Hanson, minister of state for crime and policing said Government research showed over 80 per cent of respondents supported the use of CCTV to deal with crime in their neighbourhood.

However, according to an internal report by London's Metropolitan Police Service in August, only one crime was solved for every 1,000 CCTV cameras, and only eight out of 269 suspected robbers in a month were caught by the cameras.

How effective the new watchdog will be remains to be seen. The role comes with no enforcement powers so the regulator can act only in an advisory capacity.

"While the Interim CCTV Regulator will not have responsibility for deciding whether individual cameras are appropriately sited or how they are used, he will be able to help explain to the public how they can complain about intrusive or ineffective CCTV placement or usage,” said Hanson.