Ian Lavery
Main Page: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)Department Debates - View all Ian Lavery's debates with the Home Office
(11 years, 9 months ago)
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Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
10. What steps she plans to take to increase the use of CCTV in response to community demand.
Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)
11. What steps she plans to take to increase the use of CCTV in response to community demand.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (James Brokenshire)
The Government support the effective use of CCTV to cut crime and protect the public. It is a matter for local agencies to determine how best to deploy and use CCTV systems to meet local needs.
James Brokenshire
We certainly recognise the important part that CCTV can play in making communities safer, and the hon. Lady has mentioned the City Watch programme in Liverpool. The Government are not seeking to make it harder to use CCTV; rather, we are seeking to put in place steps to ensure that its use is effective and commands the support of the public and, in so doing, that it can continue to carry out its important work.
Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)
Local communities and local authorities are looking to install yet more CCTV cameras, which make them feel safer, more secure and more assured. Why are the Government, through the bureaucracy involved in accessing CCTV, preventing more cameras from being installed on the country’s streets?
James Brokenshire
I do not accept that more bureaucracy is preventing CCTV cameras from being adopted. Under the previous Government, a centralised control mechanism was put in place, but it did not actually assess whether the CCTV systems were effective or cutting crime. We think that these decisions are better made locally, but we also want to ensure, through a code of practice, that CCTV is proportionate and effective, and delivers what it needs to deliver.