Despite calls for ban by UK government, Hikvision used by police and councils.
Chinese government-linked surveillance cameras are being used by Scottish local authorities and police.
According to an investigation by The Times, despite security and human rights concerns raised by MPs several years ago, at least 22 councils have cameras supplied by Hikvision installed across their sites.
Also, nine local authorities serving more than 1.5 million people use these camera for public space CCTV.
The UK Government’s foreign affairs committee urged the government to ban Hikvision from operating in the UK after finding the company’s surveillance cameras were used in detention camps for the Uyghur ethnic minority group in China’s Xinjiang province.
The company, which has its UK headquarters in Uxbridge, said the allegations were ‘unsubstantiated and not underpinned by evidence’ in a wide-ranging repudiation of the committee’s findings.
In Scotland, there is no statutory oversight of public space CCTV, despite an offer to Ministers by the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner. The Scottish Government has committed to removing Hikvision cameras from its estate, but Police Scotland continue to use the cameras extensively across the country.
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
