Legal advice: CCTV and the Data Protection Act

Related tags Data protection act Data protection act 1998

A recent court ruling has affected how CCTV activity is covered by the Data Protection Act 1998.By Suzanne Davies of thePublican.com's team of legal...

A recent court ruling has affected how CCTV activity is covered by the Data Protection Act 1998.

By Suzanne Davies of thePublican.com's team of legal experts from London solicitors Joelson Wilson.

Is your CCTV activity still covered by the requirements of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998? As a result of a recent court case it may not be.

The case affects whether certain CCTV activities are covered by the act or not. It dealt specifically with how information relates to an individual and how the DPA covers this.

The court decided that for information to relate to an individual, it had to affect their privacy.

And whether you will be affecting an individual's privacy or not depends on how you use your CCTV equipment.

For very basic CCTV system operators, you may no longer be required to comply with the requirements of the DPA. If you only have a couple of cameras or if you can't move them remotely or you merely record on video whatever the cameras pick up, then you do not need to comply.

By contrast you do need to be registered under the act if you as an employer use the images for you own purposes, such as checking whether a member of staff is doing their job properly.

More sophisticated operators will still be covered by the act, say if the cameras are used to focus on the activities of particular people or to identify a criminal or a witness or to assess how an employee is performing.

Although these activities will still be covered by the act, some of the images may no longer be. If a general scene is recorded without an incident occurring and with no focus on any particular individual's activities, these would not be regarded as affecting an individual's privacy and therefore not covered by the act.

The test is whether the image that has been taken is aimed at learning about a particular person's activities or not.

So, do you need to do anything?

If some of your CCTV activities are still covered, as outlined, you will need to comply with the act by ensuring that you have notified the commissioner, that you have relevant signage, that you have determined how long you retain images and are sure your equipment works properly.

There is a CCTV code of practice, which includes a checklist. The commissioner is currently conducting an extensive review of the existing CCTV code of practice to ensure it is up to date with all technological and other developments. A revised code should be available later in the year.

For further information call the data protection helpline on 01625 545745.

Related topics Legislation

Property of the week

Follow us

Pub Trade Guides

View more