Written question asked by Norman Baker (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 26 October 1999, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 2 November 1999. It was answered by Charles Clarke (Labour) on Tuesday, 2 November 1999 on behalf of the Home Office.

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Home Office

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what is (a) the largest town or city without a publicly-funded CCTV system and (b) the smallest town or village with a publicly-funded CCTV system; under what circumstances agencies under his control match images derived from CCTV camera recordings against digitised (a) passport photographs, (b) driver licence photographs and (c) police photograph databases; and what controls he operates to prevent misuse of CCTV camera recordings; what recent evidence he has to establish the effect of CCTV on displacement of crime from CCTV surveillance areas to areas without CCTV; how much departmental money has been spent on CCTV for each of the last three years; and how much matched funding this has attracted in each of these years; if he will estimate the number of times per day a person in London will on average be caught on publicly-funded CCTV; what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of CCTV systems in (a) reducing crime levels and (b) increasing detection rates, with particular reference to the report funded by the Scottish Office into the effectiveness of CCTV in Glasgow; if he will estimate (a) the number of (i) police, (ii) other public sector and (iii) private operators of CCTV systems and (b) the number of active CCTV cameras in England; what powers he has to regulate the visibility of (a) public and (b) private CCTV systems. - Inc figures and fact that some info not available centrally and ref to 'The Effect of CCTV on Recorded Crime Rates and Public Concern about Crime in Glasgow'.

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Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

337 c111-2W; 96306;96310;96304;96308;96303;96307;96305;96309

Session

1998-99

Subjects

CCTV Crime prevention Cameras Finance Greater London Identification of criminals Glasgow Regulation

Contains statistics

Yes