DWP agrees to remove Chinese surveillance cameras from Department buildings

The Department for Work and Pensions has agreed to remove Chinese state-owned surveillance cameras from its Department buildings following calls from rights groups who warned that the cameras are the same as those overseeing serious human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Big Brother Watch sent a letter to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Therese Coffey, co-signed by Stop Uyghur Genocide, Free Tibet, Hong Kong Watch and Arise, expressing concern that Hikvision cameras were in use in her Department’s buildings.

Big Brother Watch, along with other rights groups, are campaigning for Hikvision and Dahua to be banned in the UK due to the companies’ involvement in the Chinese state’s repression of Uyghurs in Xinjinag, China. Hikvision and Dahua cameras are used in concentration camps throughout the Uyghur region, and both companies have contracts worth at least $1.2 billion for 11 separate, large-scale surveillance projects across the region.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, prohibited the procurement of Hikvision cameras in his Department earlier this year, after a procurement review brought up ethical concerns. Big Brother Watch and others also wrote to the Home Office, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Department for Housing, Communities and Levelling Up, the Ministry of Justice, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who also use these cameras in their Department buildings.

In a letter to Big Brother Watch on 23rd June, the Department for Work and Pensions wrote:
“During the next three years, the Department is undertaking a capital investment programme to update and upgrade its physical security systems. The Department will not be using any security camera equipment manufactured in China as part of this programme.”

Madeleine Stone, Legal and Policy Officer at Big Brother Watch said:
“The decision to strip out Chinese state-owned CCTV from the Department for Work and Pensions is an enormously welcome development that could not come soon enough, given the role Hikvision plays in the ongoing brutal repression of Uyghurs in Xinjinag. These surveillance companies have no place in the UK and it is an outrage that taxpayers’ money is funding companies so closely linked to genocide.

“The Department for Work and Pensions has set an example that other government departments, and the rest of the UK, should urgently follow.”

Will Hoyles, Media Officer at Free Tibet said:
“It’s great to see that another government department has committed to removing Hikvision from its premises. Tibetans are living in the least free place on earth thanks in large part to Hikvision’s technology and they should receive no funding from UK taxpayers. Given the growing trend to stop using Hikvision there is now no excuse for the government to keep quiet about the advice its own experts are giving about the safety of their cameras.”

ENDS.

NOTES:
A copy of the letter sent to DWP by Big Brother Watch and others can be found here.
A copy of the letter sent from DWP to Big Brother Watch and others can be found here.

Spokespeople are available for interviews. Contact Big Brother Watch’s 24h media line on 07730439257 or email [email protected]

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