Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will take steps to ban the use of surveillance cameras made by Hikvision and Dahua in schools in the UK.

The department is not able to ban the use of surveillance cameras made by Hikvision and Dahua in schools. Any decision to install CCTV in schools should be taken after careful consideration by the headteacher and governors and after appropriate consultation with pupils and parents. Any CCTV installation must comply with all laws relating to its use.

In January, the government announced the provision of new guidance and support for UK public sector bodies, which will include schools, to exclude suppliers where there is sufficient evidence of human rights violations in any of their supply chains.