Government departments will remove Chinese-made CCTV amid national security concerns, it has been announced.
At least three Whitehall offices are believed to still have Chinese-made surveillance cameras installed as new rules on the equipment were unveiled by ministers.
It follows pressure from backbench Tory MPs to toughen up the Procurement Bill, which lays out rules for companies competing for government contracts.
Under the proposals, the Cabinet Office will create a National Security Procurement Unit and publish a timeline for the removal of cameras produced by companies subject to China’s National Security Law.
Critics say the law allows Beijing authorities to demand to see footage taken from “sensitive” UK government sites.
Cabinet minister Jeremy Quin said on Wednesday: “Protecting the nation’s security has always been the government’s number one job.
“These new measures will protect our sensitive sectors from companies which could threaten national security and are a firm deterrence to hostile actors who wish to do Britain harm.
“This builds on the robust rules within the Procurement Bill to hold suppliers to account and ensure that the taxpayer is protected.”
Chinese government owned Hikvision cameras can be seen at the Department for Health, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and the UK Government Investments Headquarters.
The cameras are also on the Household Cavalry Museum in Whitehall, next to the Treasury Offices.
Cabinet minister Oliver Dowden last year declared that the use of Hikvision CCTV systems presented “current and future possible security risks”.
There were calls for a ban of the company by a cross-party group of 67 UK MPs.
Security Expert Paul Singh from Y3K said: “There needs to be a government white paper drawn up to lay down clear guidelines for the procurement and usage of CCTV systems in the UK. These guidelines need to take into account the integrity of the systems, as well as the ethical and privacy implications relating to their suppliers and manufacturers.”
In a recent study campaign group Big Brother Watch found Chinese CCTV companies Hikvision, which was placed on a US trade blacklist in 2019, Dahua and Honeywell have about one million cameras installed in the UK. More than half of the cameras in London are thought to be made by these brands.
