HC Deb 04 December 1997 vol 302 cc296-7W
Mr. Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what controls apply to the use of hand-held video cameras by the police. [18914]

Mr. Michael

The use of hand-held video cameras is an operational matter and the decision to use them and in which circumstances comes within the responsibility of individual chief officers.

Guidelines on the use of equipment in police surveillance operations, including cameras, were issued by the Home Office in 1984. They make it clear that a senior officer should give authority for the equipment to be used and that he should first satisfy himself that its use will not involve any unwarrantable intrusion of privacy and is fully justified in all the circumstances of the operation in question.