What is the law on camera systems at work? Our guide to legal camera surveillance in the UK

It’s only natural for a business to want to protect its staff and property. Security is an understandable concern and advances in technology means that camera surveillance through CCTV systems is better than ever. Dashcams and drones with mounted HD cameras allow you to protect your vehicles and gain a bird’s eye view of your farm and property. But using any form of camera, particularly as a business, brings legal responsibilities. Break the law on surveillance and there could be serious repercussions. But what is the law on installing camera systems at work, on the road and in the air? In this guide, we’ll give you useful tips on how to stay legal in the UK for CCTV systems, dash cams and drones, and point you to more information too.

UK laws on CCTV at work
In the UK, the law on using CCTV at work is different to the laws for using CCTV to protect your home. We’ll give you an overview on staying legal with home CCTV systems at the end of this section.

Protecting your business with CCTV cameras
There are lots of reasons you might want to install CCTV systems on commercial property – inside, outside or on company vehicles. Perhaps you want to keep staff safe, deter burglars and vandals or ensure that work is being carried out safely and efficiently. There are several things to consider when considering camera surveillance systems, though.

It’s vital that what you’re doing doesn’t undermine the trust and confidence assumed between you and your people. If you do, and someone resigns, they could claim constructive dismissal. There are also data protection laws -  the Data Protection Act 1998 - about what information about employees you are allowed to collect, store and use. Breaching the DPA can bring sanctions, bad publicity and fines of up to £500,000. Your staff are entitled to ask what information – not just camera footage – you have on them and why and how it will be used. You also can’t keep footage indefinitely. Human rights laws (see the Human Rights Act 1998) also require you to respect your employees’ right to privacy. Installing cameras in bathrooms would obviously require extraordinary justification, but don’t assume that a camera in a tractor cab is automatically acceptable.

Before you install CCTV at work, it’s recommended that you carry out a proper consultation. You need to let all employees know in advance what you intend to install and why, how you will monitor, store and process recordings or live feeds, and how you will protect their privacy. They should have the chance to respond with their opinions. After the consultation, you should create a formal CCTV policy document.

Here are our recommendations for being compliant with commercial CCTV legislation:

1. Register with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a CCTV operator
2. Carry out a privacy impact assessment for how your camera system affects both employees and the general public
3. Don’t install cameras in private places like toilets or changing rooms
4. Make sure your camera system doesn’t record audio of members of the public
5. Never share your recordings publicly
6. Restrict access to your CCTV controls and recordings only to those within the business who need it
7. Put up signage to warn that you have CCTV systems in place and publish the name of the person you have made responsible for your system
8. Publish a full CCTV policy and train all relevant staff in their responsibilities and your policy
9. Make sure that any recordings are stored securely and deleted when they are no longer needed (31 days is a standard length of time for storing CCTV footage)
10. Keep track of any changes in the law regarding CCTV.

What about if you suspect a member of staff of being dishonest? Can you use covert cameras to catch them in the act? Any use of secret cameras needs to be justifiable. That means suspecting criminal activity or dangerous practices. Even then, you need to target your use of cameras: you couldn’t install it in every company vehicle cab, for instance, because you need to consider the privacy of innocent employees. It needs to be part of a specific investigation and only for a set period of time. Even then, places like bathrooms should not be monitored.

If in doubt, consult a reputable CCTV specialist company to ensure that your installation and practices are entirely legal. You can find out much more about CCTV use and complying with the law here, and the government has a collection of surveillance camera guidance and resources available here.

Installing residential CCTV systems
Using CCTV for home security is becoming much more common. Since it’s your personal space, there are fewer rules to stick to. But you still need to respect the privacy of the public and visitors to your home. It’s best not to record audio and check that the public highway and your neighbours’ homes and gardens are not captured in your footage, and certainly should never be the focal point.

Some easy guidelines to home CCTV use

• Tell your neighbours that you are installing a CCTV system
• Position cameras so that they don’t invade neighbours’ privacy (some systems also have privacy masking to blank out a window)
• If your camera captures land or people outside your property and your system cannot use privacy masking technology, you may have to register with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a CCTV operator
• Turn off the audio setting, particularly for outside your property
• Put up at least one sign to notify visitors that your property is CCTV-protected
• Don’t put cameras up in toilets or bathrooms
• Don’t share your footage publicly
• Delete recordings older than 31 days, unless you have captured a crime and need to pass it to the police or your insurance company
• Set the correct time and date and make sure you have enough recording space.

You can check out the UK government’s guidelines on home CCTV use here.

UK laws on dash cams for company vehicles
Using dash cams in the UK is completely legal; you don’t need a licence or particular permission. There are still some things to consider, though, to stay within the law and not have your in-car camera system become a liability to you or your company.

Firstly, where you position a dash cam matters. Just as with satellite navigation systems and phone holders, your dash cam must not obstruct your view of the road. According to the UK Road Traffic Act 1988, most of the windscreen must be completely free of obstruction. The windscreen is divided into two zones, according to the law: zone A, a 290mm-wide vertical rectangle centred on the steering wheel (it’s a 350mm-wide space for good vehicles of 3.5t+), and zone B is the full sweep of the blades. Your dash cam can only intrude 10mm into zone A, and only 40mm into zone B.

Positioning your dash cam wrongly could lead to an MOT failure, or be charged with careless driving or dangerous driving if you’re involved in an accident – and this could result in penalty points or even imprisonment. You must also never touch your dash cam while on the road, even when stationary, or you could be fined £100 and have three penalty points added to your licence.

While the public roads are not seen as spaces where individuals can expect much privacy, your dash cam does capture personal information such as faces, car registration details and location data; it’s sensible to avoid publishing dash cam footage online to avoid infringing on privacy or data protection laws.

The law on dash cams for company vehicles sets out a few more requirements. Most dash cams record audio, and some can even record inside the vehicle. For this reason, anyone using the vehicle must be made aware that they may be recorded. A sign within the cab is advisable and on the exterior of the vehicle for the general public. Turning off your dash cam’s audio recording capability will be reassuring for staff and members of the public.

Installing dash cams in commercial vehicles obliges you to have a dashcam policy, demonstrating the reasoning behind use of dash cams and communicating that purpose to anyone with a dashcam in their vehicle. You must store all recorded material securely and for no longer than necessary and restrict access to people who understand legal data protection requirements.

Installing dashcam cameras and in particular in-cab cameras should be treated in the same way as installing CCTV systems at work: with complete transparency and a staff consultation. The UK government has created a surveillance camera buyers’ toolkit to help you comply with all the rules and regulations. You’ll find it here.

UK laws on operating drones
Legally speaking, in the UK a drone is considered to be any unmanned aerial vehicle (including model aeroplanes). It is now the law that anyone (even children) who wants to fly a drone weighing more than 250g (i.e. all but the smallest of toy drones) must pass an online theory test to get a flyer ID. The test is free.

If you are the owner of a drone, you are legally responsible for ensuring only people with a flyer ID use your drone, and you must apply for an operator ID. The ID costs £9 and must be renewed annually if you want to continue owning and operating the drone, or face a £1,000 fine. You must also register all drones over 250g and label each with a unique licence number.

You can register and take the test for amateur/individual drone flying and ownership here.

If you are intending to operate a drone commercially – ie for a customer or in return for money, you will need to get permission in advance from the Civil Aviation Authority. You can find out more about the requirements here.

Most of the laws about flying a drone in the UK relate to safety and privacy.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority has produced a handy Drone Code PDF. It states that you must always keep your drone in direct line of sight and states that you must not fly:

• more than 400ft (120m) above the ground and away from aircraft, airports and airfields
• closer than 50m from people and never overhead
• closer than 50m from buildings, cars, trains and boats
• closer than 150m from crowds of 1,000 people or more
• closer than 150m from built-up areas and never overhead
• within an airport’s restricted zone (see the Drone Code PDF for visuals).

The law regarding filming from a drone in the UK is clear: you cannot take video or photographs of someone where they expect to be private, such as in their home or garden. It is important that you observe the law and never fly your drone within 50m of any member of the public or their home. Never share publicly any film or photographs which may be harmful to them in any way; the images you collect are covered by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Any footage or photography which compromises someone’s privacy should be destroyed immediately.

And if you are recording your drone film for commercial use, you will need to register with the ICO as a data controller and process, store and secure your data in a GDPR-compliant way. Visit the ICO website for detailed advice on GDPR and your responsibilities as a data controller and processor.