CCTV use in Pubs and Leisure Premises

Appropriate use of CCTV in pubs to monitor customers’ or employees’ activities can benefit your business and the community. It is increasingly common to see footage used to secure a criminal conviction, or retrace the last known steps of a missing person, for example. Just having the system in place can also be a powerful deterrent for bad behaviour. In some cases the Licensing Authority may even require you to install CCTV cameras.

If you decide to install, or are required to install CCTV, then it is not just a question of buying the equipment and putting it in place.  There are various ongoing responsibilities that you need to be aware of.

Legal requirements

The use of CCTV must comply with data protection law. The law requires the use of CCTV to be necessary and proportionate to the problem you are addressing. You must first consider whether there are other options available. For example, use of CCTV in a well-staffed and trouble-free community pub is unlikely to be justified.

CCTV shouldn’t be used in toilets and changing rooms as these are considered private. You would need to demonstrate that you are dealing with exceptional cases such as repeated anti-social behaviour or violence to show that surveillance in private areas is necessary, and even then it would have to be for a carefully limited period of time. You will generally always need to make it clear to people that they are being filmed.

The decision to use CCTV must be documented. You should set out your decision to use CCTV and your reasons for this.

Registration

When you install a CCTV system you must register with the Information Commissioner and name the “data controller” – this should be the company that controls the images captured by CCTV and who has authority to disclose them. There may be more than one data controller – it could be both tenant and pubco if responsibility (and/or access to the video feed) is shared.

You will need to pay an annual registration fee. There is a fine and a risk of criminal conviction if this is not done.

Signage

You are required by law to notify the public that CCTV is in operation on your premises. This is usually done by displaying notices. You should make a clear distinction between CCTV that is used in public areas, and CCTV which will only monitor staff activities (such as behind the till, or in the stockroom). There are additional things to think about when using CCTV to monitor staff, which are addressed further below.

Policies

It is important that you have a written privacy policy that covers the use of CCTV. You will also need a CCTV policy which covers the justification for its use, the person who has overall responsibility for the CCTV, how many people have access to the system, whether images can be used for disciplinary purposes, how images are to be stored and how requests for disclosure of images are dealt with. This is a good basis for training individuals involved with the process. It is also important to be able to demonstrate to the Information Commissioner that you take your data protection responsibilities seriously in case of a complaint being made about how you collected, stored or used personal data.

Disclosure of information

The UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 govern the circumstances in which CCTV footage can be disclosed to a third party. In essence, images can be provided to the police if they are necessary for investigating or preventing a crime or for apprehending or prosecuting an offender. NB It is these requirements that you must comply with rather than any general stipulation in your licence that you must provide images to the police “on request.”

A CCTV image of a person is likely to be their personal data, which means that they can generally request a copy of that image by making a “Subject Access Request” or SAR. When complying with a SAR it is important to give the person meaningful information about what images you have of them and how and why they have been captured and stored. But you must also be careful not to disclose anyone else’s personal data which might be contained in the same still or video images.

You are not bound but are rather encouraged to follow the Amended Surveillance Camera Code of Practice (accessible version).

You should also follow the guidance published on the Information Commissioner’s website here.

Monitoring staff

When it comes to using CCTV to monitor employees at work you should consult with them before filming them and listen to their views. You will need a specific reason for filming and be satisfied that this will be justified by the benefits it will deliver.

You are unlikely to be able to justify the use of audio recording in all but exceptional circumstances. If staff are subject to verbal abuse from customers you might be able to justify audio recording if this can be activated by staff only during an incident.

NB If you have installed CCTV for security reasons it wouldn’t be acceptable to use the footage to monitor and discipline staff without warning them in advance that you intend to use footage for that purpose.

The following are some best practice tips when monitoring staff:

• If you are considering surveillance of your staff it is important that data protection laws are complied with.
• Surveillance must be targeted at suspects and used for only a limited time. It can only be justified if the adverse effect on the employee is justified by the benefits to the employer and others of collecting the data.
• As an employer you must carry out an impact assessment in order to decide whether monitoring is justified in a particular case.

The ICO published guidance for employers in the Employment Practices Code. This covers the use of video surveillance in the workplace. The Code is aimed at helping employers to comply with the Data Protection Act by adopting good practices. Section 3 of the Code covers both video monitoring and covert monitoring in the workplace and sets out practical advice and examples of how to carry out an impact assessment.