§ The Marquess of Ailesburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether a security camera which requires a tape has other appreciable running costs apart from the costs of the tape. [HL1338]
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Williams of Mostyn)The running costs associated with security cameras will be determined by the operational requirement for the cameras. In addition to routine maintenance and repair and a power supply, security cameras may require a range of additional facilities which will have implications for running costs. Examples include infra-red lighting systems for night vision, cabling or other transmission systems to transmit the signal in either analogue or digital form to a monitoring station and facilities to record and retrieve images. Signal transmission and monitoring tend to be major components of running costs for most closed circuit television systems.