Surveillance camera commissioner’s advice that trusts be required to comply with code to protect patients is rejected

The government has rejected a request by the surveillance camera watchdog to allow it to monitor the increasing and unregulated use of CCTV and body-worn video cameras in hospitals.

The body cameras, which record sound as well as images, are being increasingly deployed in hospitals in an effort to tackle abuse of frontline health service staff.

On Wednesday, it emerged that surveillance camera commissioner Tony Porter had warned ministers last year that the privacy of millions of NHS patients was put at risk by the unchecked use of the cameras.

In a call backed by privacy campaigners, Porter recommended adding NHS trusts to a list of public bodies required to comply with a code of practice on the use of surveillance in an effort to promote greater transparency and accountability.



But the Home Office, the department to which Porter reports, has rejected the requests.

A letter to Porter sent last week from the home office minister Brandon Lewis, and released by the government on Wednesday, said the recommendation was unnecessary as: “We had not exhausted the possibilities of increasing voluntary compliance.”

In letter in November, also released on Wednesday, Porter warned that the voluntary approach had twice been rejected by NHS Protect, the body responsible for hospital security, “on the ground that they could not enforce compliance”.

Porter’s letter added: “Despite our best attempts, voluntary adoption has not worked … and it will be difficult without government intervention.”

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Under the code, which is overseen by Porter as the surveillance camera commissioner, public bodies such as the police must demonstrate a “pressing need” for the use of surveillance cameras, and warn the public of their use and how images will be stored and used. Porter, a former senior counter-terrorism officer, has been working with the police to ensure how public privacy can be protected as forces roll out body-worn video for frontline officers. He wants to do the same in the NHS.

In his November letter, Porter warned Lewis that he was becoming increasingly concerned about the use of surveillance in the NHS.

He said: “The NHS trusts are complex organisations that use surveillance camera systems in public areas where people under surveillance are likely to be vulnerable and distressed, and where the privacy requirements and burden on those conducting transparent, legitimate and proportionate surveillance is surely at its highest.”

He pointed out that millions of people use hospitals each year, and added: “The introduction of body-worn video cameras at several hospitals has increased my concerns. Body-worn video cameras are a particularly intrusive device as they capture audio and video simultaneously without the option of switching either off whilst recording.”

Porter said the government’s decision to allow surveillance to go unchecked in the NHS raised a series of questions about the privacy of patients.

In a statement to the Guardian, he said: “Surveillance cameras play an important role in maintaining public and staff safety, preventing and resolving crimes. Yet in the healthcare sector they are not subject to scrutiny and standards, and therefore can we be reassured that they are fit for purpose and are doing what they are meant to be doing?

“Are we sure that security officers using body-worn video are doing so without invading an individual’s right to privacy when they may be at their most vulnerable? NHS Protect have twice rejected recommending that trusts adopt the surveillance camera code of practice as it’s not mandatory for them – the code is designed to ensure cameras are used effectively, transparently and efficiently to protect individuals’ freedoms.



“In the absence of any mandate to adopt the code, I’m continuing to work with government to look at how we can encourage NHS trusts and hospitals to voluntarily adopt the surveillance camera code of practice.”

Daniel Nesbitt, research director at Big Brother Watch, urged ministers to heed Porter’s warning.

He said: “The government shouldn’t be standing in the way of effective oversight. The NHS controls a large number of CCTV cameras and the public have to be able to trust they will use them properly.

“Giving the surveillance camera commissioner the power to oversee how trusts use their cameras should be a no-brainer.”