Following publication of the long-term National CCTV Strategy in October 2007, good progress has been made in moving towards implementing the 44 recommendations. The recommendations targeted action from the police and local authorities to work together to improve public safety. The National Policing Improvement Agency took over responsibility for the Strategy in spring 2008. A National CCTV Strategy Programme Board has been established and has delivered five of these recommendations. The recommendations that have been implemented as at April 2009 are:
Recommendation 3:The Home Office Scientific Development Branch and the British Security Industry Authority (BSIA) now have a seat on National and International standards bodies.
Recommendation 4: Publication of a revised Operational Requirements Manual on 31 March 2009, along with a new CCTV image quality test target, will help educate and inform purchasers and end users regarding critical issues such as image quality.
Recommendation 16: The BSIA’s new “Get Licensed” Booklet (published October 2008) means that all BSIA licensed operators should know how to use CCTV correctly and are vetted to the appropriate level.
Recommendation 24: New protocols mean that all police forces now have the capability of sharing Airwave telecommunications with local CCTV Managers and a significant number of police forces share intelligence with CCTV Control Centres. Such partnership working leads to the operation of public space CCTV providing best value to communities.
Recommendation 29: An evaluation of camera to archive network access and data archiving has led to a recommendation for the police and the wider Criminal Justice System to move towards the use of managed secure servers for the long-term storage and archiving of CCTV and other forms of digital evidence.
Since January 2009 the board has been reviewing the recommendations made in the Strategy. It is clear that, since the Strategy was written and published, some recommendations are either no longer appropriate or need reviewing. Therefore, in addition to the five already implemented, a further 12 will be implemented by the end of 2009 and an additional six by the end of 2010.
The remaining 21 recommendations are currently being reviewed to take account of comments and changes in technology since publication. Once that review is completed, I shall write to the hon. Member and let him know the outcome.