CCTV

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, or ‘RIPA’ as it is more commonly referred to, regulates the use of covert surveillance by public bodies.

Thanet Councils’ RIPA policy was agreed at the governance and Audit committee on Wednesday 26th July 2023.

All staff who have a delegated authority to provisionally authorise the use of covert surveillance, are fully trained and understand the provisions of RIPA and its appropriate use.

Any form of covert surveillance must be approved by the Magistrates’ Court prior to the commencement of covert surveillance.

For more information, please see the Council’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Policy Thanet District Council Draft RIPA Policy 2022

For more information, please see the Council’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Policy Thanet District Council Draft RIPA Policy 2022

Many people are installing closed-circuit television (CCTV) as a home security measure as it’s proved to be an effective tool in fighting crime. Cameras used for limited household purposes are not subject to current data protection legislation.

However, if the footage covers areas beyond this, such as neighbouring streets or other properties, it may create problems and will need to comply with data protection law. There could be issues regarding privacy and harassment if you’re being recorded in your home.

The first step is to speak to your neighbour to see if they’ll reposition the camera so that it doesn’t point at your property. If that doesn’t work and you want to take further action, we recommend getting legal advice from a solicitor.

You may find resources belonging to the Information Commissioner’s Office useful as well.

Data protection law gives you the right to request CCTV footage of yourself under the right of access in data protection law.

In order to support your request, please provide the following information:

• a specific date and time to help us locate the footage
• proof of your identity, ideally including a photograph.
• a description of yourself. This can include all details such as height, clothing or incident description, and a suitable photograph of you that will help us identify you.

Please make your request through our subject access request form.

Thanet District Council must usually provide the footage free of charge within 1 calendar month. If your request is complex we may extend this by an additional 2 months but we will tell you if this applies.

We have separate processes for dealing with requests from solicitors or insurance companies and the police.

The images of individuals, or groups of individuals, are personal data therefore the Council must comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018 to be able to disclose such footage to third parties.

A request for footage under this process is made under Schedule 2, part 1, Para 5 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

This section covers disclosures relating to legal proceedings and states:

(3) The listed GDPR provisions do not apply to personal data where disclosure
of the data—

(a) is necessary for the purpose of, or in connection with, legal proceedings (including
prospective legal proceedings),
(b) is necessary for the purpose of obtaining legal advice, or
(c) is otherwise necessary for the purposes of establishing, exercising or defending legal
rights,
to the extent that the application of those provisions would prevent the controller from making the disclosure.

It is an offence under this legislation if any requester seeks to obtain or procure personal data unlawfully.

Requesters will be required to sign an agreement and declaration to confirm that they are making the requests lawfully.

Legal professions or insurance companies

For the legal profession or insurance company, we reserve the right to make a charge for our services. This is to cover the cost of searching the recorded images, providing a digital copy including sending the media by recorded delivery and a media receipt that can be used in evidence if required.

The calculation for this fee is based on actual and true costs for all aspects. The fee is payable irrespective of the outcome of the search.

The fee is currently £50 per request.

Individuals requesting footage of themselves

Where the request is for more than one individual’s personal data, the Council reserves the right to charge additional fees to reflect the cost of the work undertaken.

For those requesting footage of themselves, the footage is given free of charge.
We reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee where the request to exercise a right under sections 45, 46, 47 or 50 of the Data Protection Act 2018 is manifestly unfounded or excessive.