Home Office plans to force CCTV on shops and pubs

If you’re planning to buy alcohol in the near future, and prefer not to have your mugshot made available to the local police, best to stock up now. Because, buried deep within the debate around the s.31 of the Policing and Crime Bill are provisions that will allow the Secretary of State to instruct your local corner shop – or pub – to instal CCTV and retain pictures of anyone buying alcohol for at least 60 days. Said pics will, of course, be available to the police on request.

Like so much other legislation passed by this government, nothing is ever straightforward. The Policing Bill merely gives the Secretary of State the power to issue secondary legislation (aka statutory instruments – or executive diktat): these would consist of

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In other words, Parliament is being asked to sign a blank cheque: give us the powers now, and we will use them as we see fit at a later date. What sort of powers might the Secretary of State seek to sign off? The government has not yet decided: but El Reg has seen a document entitled “Draft Mandatory Code for discussion with stakeholders”.

The draft has not yet been approved by Ministers, so it is possible that some, all, or none of the measures included in it may be quietly dropped over the next few months. However, those we have seen range from the fussy (laying down the precise percentage of floor area that should be given over to seating), prescriptive (requiring that staff be trained at least every five years in conflict resolution) to the downright intrusive (requiring that areas where alcohol is displayed be covered by CCTV – and all footage be kept for no less than 60 days).

Full article here