Chinese CCTV camera firms engaging in human rights abuses will be given a ‘free pass’ to operate in the UK under controversial Government proposals, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The proposed new camera surveillance code has caused consternation with the Government’s own independent CCTV watchdog and MPs who have called for tougher regulations.
Professor Fraser Sampson, Biometric and Surveillance Camera Commission, has been lobbying to get the new code to include a legal requirement to effectively block authorities from buying cameras from firms connected to human rights abuses.
He told the MoS the revised camera surveillance code, to be laid before parliament next month, could only be a ‘credible’ and ‘meaningful’ change if it included the human rights clause.

Chinese CCTV camera firm, Hikvision, which has been implicated in surveillance of the persecuted Muslim Uighur population will be given a ‘free pass’ to operate in UK (file image)
But on Friday Mr Sampson confirmed he understood the new Government proposals would not include the clause, providing an effective ‘free pass’ for firms involved in human rights abuses to sell their cameras to UK authorities.
It also raises the prospect of a row with MPs after a Foreign Affairs Committee report in July called for a ban on the use of China’s Hikvision cameras in the UK because of the firm’s links to human rights abuses.
State-owned Hikvision, the world’s largest provider of CCTV cameras, has been implicated in the surveillance of the persecuted Muslim Uighur population in China’s western Xinjiang province.
A contract for the firm’s cameras shows they are used in at least one Uighur ‘re-education camp’.
The US ban has been placed on the company, but the company continues to provide cameras for police and other authorities in the UK.

A contract for the firm’s cameras shows they are used in at least one Uighur ‘re-education camp’. Pictured: A facility believed to be a ‘re-education’ camp in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region
Mr Sampson said it ‘seems that my efforts to get even the broadest mention [of] ethical considerations around surveillance camera systems… have failed and the revised Code will not contain any reference to them’.
He also accused the Government of failing to even follow its own camera surveillance code, in contrast to private companies such as Marks & Spencer who have voluntarily adopted the principles.
He added: ‘There are organisations that are voluntarily adopting that code in any event, and are quite prepared to open their ethical books
‘Some public bodies, such as hospitals, and Marks & Spencer are the clearest example.
‘They have re-certified against the code of practice – they [Marks & Spencer]More cameras are available than in English towns.
‘Yet at the same time the government doesn’t follow its own code, which is very difficult for me to explain when I’m encouraging compliance.’

The US ban on the company has led to the company being barred from the market, but the company continues to provide surveillance cameras to the UK police and authorities. Pictured: Chinese policemen push Uighur women protesting in 2009
Tom Tugendhat, Foreign Affairs Committee chair, expressed concern at the proposals, saying: ‘Companies involved in state brutality should not be operating on our streets.
‘We need to think about those bidding for contracts and what they’re bringing with them.’
The revelations come as the MoS reveals that Hikvision bosses privately agreed to allow their cameras to be used in at most one reeducation camp in China.
Chiefs are understood to have since blocked any similar contracts but are concerned revealing this would upset China’s Communist Party-controlled government.
Concerns have also been raised about the security of cameras made by an arm the Chinese state.
Hikvision supplies CCTV cameras for British schools, police forces and government departments.
The Home Office did no respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.