Watchdog wants review of foreign CCTV tech after Hancock clinch
A GOVERNMENT watchdog has called for a review into the use of foreign technology in Whitehall’s CCTV systems following the Matt Hancock ‘Gropegate’ scandal.
Fraser Sampson, the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, has written to Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, stating: ‘There is a pressing need to clarify the Government’s position on the risks and considerations arising from the extra-territorial ownership of surveillance camera capabilities operating within the United Kingdom.’ The affair of former Health Secretary Mr Hancock with his aide Gina Coladangelo was revealed i n June, after footage of them embracing taken by a camera in his office was leaked to the press.
It led to false claims that he had fallen victim to a sting executed by a hostile foreign power such as China or Russia.
Citing ‘ widespread public comment on the circumstances preceding the resignation of the Secretary of State for Health’, Mr Sampson warned ‘the risks and considerations in this field are complex and multifaceted’, adding: ‘The proliferation of surveillance camera systems and advances in the attendant technologies possibly represent a new manifestation of an enduring risk.
‘ The i mpact on people’s l i ves engaged by the risks and considerations is not confined entirely to matters of personal data and extends to areas such as the so-called “chilling effect” on the extent to which people feel able to hold and express opinions, meet each other and demonstrate peacefully.
‘These are elemental constitutional entitlements which also need to be considered in light of the perceived risks of non-UK owned and operated surveillance systems.’
He said the Hancock case and the Government’s decision to restrict the access of Chinese firm Huawei to the 5G network presented an ‘irresistible opportunity to address the risks and considerations’.