‘Lots of rhetoric and little evidence’ in debate

Money was ploughed into the equipment as the Government led a campaign to build up support for CCTV, said Isabella Sankey, director of policy at the civil liberties group.

“This is a debate in which there has not been a huge amount of evidence and there has been a lot of rhetoric,” she told a committee of MPs considering the Government’s Protection of Freedoms Bill, which includes tougher regulation of the technology.

“Certainly over the past few years and, if I may say so, under the previous Government, there was definitely a drive to engender support for CCTV among the public. It is a quick fix to say, ‘We’re going to install some CCTV’.”

Asked whether she was accusing the Government of influencing the public into wanting CCTV cameras, she said: “There was certainly a lot of money made available for CCTV cameras under the previous Government. I am not denying that members of the public are asking for CCTV to be put up.”

She said evidence on how useful the equipment is compared to other crime detection and prevention measures “has not been properly explored and explained to members of the public”.

And she said the idea that CCTV is a silver bullet to preventing crime “is frankly not borne out by the evidence, which was commissioned by the Home Office under the previous Government to investigate its effectiveness in deterring crime”. At best, “it might displace it”, she said.

Eric Metcalfe, director of human rights policy at campaign group Justice, also called for a scaling back on the number of cameras in operation.

“The starting point is that CCTV is a form of public surveillance,” he told MPs. “It should be discouraged, because surveillance is an interference with privacy. There are certain situations when it is absolutely justified to interfere with privacy — for example, CCTV in an airport. That is a security zone and it is reasonable to have security in that situation. But, as a general rule, you have to show that it is necessary and proportionate.”

The Home Office has outlined proposals for a new code of conduct which would force police forces and councils who want CCTV systems to be open and clear about what they will be used for and why. It could also say how long data, including images from number plate cameras, should be retained.