If you read my last blog on the draft National Surveillance Camera Strategy for England and Wales you’ll know that the consultation is underway – it kicked off with a couple of media interviews and you may have seen me on Sunday Morning Live. I thought I’d use this blog to set out what me and the team are doing as part of the consultation.
Hitting the road
Well we are out on the road a bit for the next couple of weeks – this week we are running a consultation event in Wales with the help of the Welsh Government. It’s aimed at police forces and local authorities – who must pay due regard to code and they are two of the work strands in the strategy. Then staying in Wales I’m speaking at Cardiff University at a Festival of Social Science which is a public debate so it will be good to hear what views members of the public have about surveillance cameras. I sometime feel the public aren’t fully aware of what surveillance cameras can and can’t do so I’m looking forward to seeing what people thoughts are on the strategy and specifically the civil engagement strand.
Then I’m in London at an event speaking to the National Association of Healthcare Security (NAHS) – a sector that isn’t legally obliged to adopt the code but has a very large surveillance camera ‘footprint’. They fall squarely within the voluntary adopters strand and it will be interesting to hear their views on what the barriers are to adopting the code. To my knowledge not many Primary Health Care Trusts have adopted the code.
Next week I’m in Bristol at the Global MSC Event – this one is aimed at people who use surveillance cameras such as CCTV operators and managers. Quite a knowledgeable audience so it will be very interesting to see what they make of the strategy! Finally, I’m hosting a round-table event with the Centre for Research into Information Security and Privacy (CRISP). This will cover all aspects of the strategy with various interest groups, industry experts and regulators.
Contribute your ideas
So, quite a busy few weeks ahead. Don’t forget we also have a survey running which anyone can complete – we’ve had around 70 respondents so far which I think is quite good in two weeks. If any organisation wants to send in a formal response they can do that too.
There are four weeks left of the consultation so spread the word! The more feedback we get the better the final strategy will be.
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