Chinese CCTV removed from UK government sites

Westminster is concerned Chinese companies can be compelled to hand over sensitive data to the Communist Party’s spy agencies.

Hikvision surveillance cameras near the company’s headquarters in Hangzhou, China. Picture: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Public offices and sensitive government sites are to strip out CCTV cameras and equipment made by various Chinese companies including Hikvision and Dahua, the British government has announced.

Oliver Dowden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said that additional controls are required on the Chinese systems because of their increasing capability and connectivity posing security risks, and he has banned immediate installation of the Chinese-made cameras.

Mr Dowden said departments had been also told to “proactively” remove the Chinese systems, rather than wait for a schedule upgrade.

The government’s concern is that the Chinese companies are subject to China’s national intelligence law, which can compel Chinese companies to hand over sensitive data to the Communist Party’s spy agencies.

Experts have warned the British government that the developments in the technology of the cameras, particularly face recognition scanning, have created a high risk situation where other governments now have the ability to spy on British citizens on British soil.

Following a furore in June 2021 when the then health minister Matt Hancock was forced to resign after being caught kissing another woman in his office on CCTV, at a time when there were Covid-19 lockdown measures in place, the cameras were taken out of the Department of Health offices.

The cross party parliamentary group China Research Group said that Mr Dowden’s decision announced on Thursday means Chinese surveillance equipment providers will be banned from deploying equipment onto “sensitive sites.”

This comes days after Scottish ministers ordered a similar action, removing cameras from Scottish buildings amid fears the same Chinese tech companies are used by the Chinese Communist Party in cracking down on the population in Xinjiang.

Tory MP Alicia Kearns, the chair of the Chinese Research Group said: “Removing Chinese surveillance cameras from the estate is a step in the right direction – but we can go much further. Public bodies and local authorities should not be procuring from surveillance companies, such as Hikvision, that have consistently failed to come clean over their complicity in CCP-orchestrated human rights abuses against the Uighur people and other minorities in Xinjiang.”

She added: “Any ban should be backed up by a new national procurement framework that provides alternatives to Chinese state-backed tech that could be compelled to transfer vast amounts of UK citizen data into the hands of the CCP.”

The British CCTV commissioner Professor Fraser Sampson told LBC radio on Thursday: “The principal concern is less about the fact that almost every aspect of our lives is under some form of surveillance, and more about by whom. So whether it’s our government department, police or local authorities almost any capability they have to conduct any surveillance … is in the hands of private companies.”

In a statement Hikvision said it was “categorically false to represent Hikvision as a threat to national security”.

The company said that Hikvision cannot transmit data from end-users to third parties, it doesn’t manage end-user databases, nor does it sell cloud storage in the UK.

“Our cameras are compliant with the applicable UK rules and regulations and are subject to strict security requirements,’’ the company said.

“We have always been fully transparent about our operations in the UK and have been engaging with the UK Government to clarify misunderstandings about the company, our business, and address their concerns. We will seek to urgently engage further with ministers to understand this decision.”