Cameras in office

[myusernameisnotmyusername]

Today a man was doing some rewiring in our office. When asked what it was for he replied cameras. So they are planning to install cctv in our office! Is this allowed? Is this normal? This is an office of a few people and there's already cctv in walkways.

Worked in an insurance place and they had cctv facing all the entrances to the rooms and in the hallways. I don't think there's really a question of allowed though..

That isn't so bad but there has been a lot of discussion lately about needing extra staff and problems internally with systems so it feels like they have installed it because there's a lack of trust.

This is actually in our small office facing the staff.

They have to be registered with the ICO to have CCTV up helpful

How do I find out if they are?

Have a look at article 8 human rights and see if they are complying with the law.

It's complex, they can do it but not willy nilly.

Yes they're registered.

There's more to it than being registered if you can be bothered to google it.

What do you mean? More to it like bad or ok? If that makes sense.

Is it for safety? We have cameras in every room except the toilets. This protects the pupils and staff. It is only viewed for safety reasons and only transferred to a disc if a record of an incident needs to be kept.

Nobody has told us. I'm assuming it's to monitor work as there's been previous conversations about why we can't do certain things which is to do with other things in the company.

I have read a bit on acas like that they're meant to let us know and tell us what it's for.

If you worked in a shop or a bar there is often cctv. I wouldn't think there's much difference due to it being an office. I'm not a legal brain though.

How am I supposed to know what you think is bad? They are supposed to tell you along with many other things, this is all detailed in article 8. There are some really good webpages about it. But I'm not going to précis them for you.

All I know is that the cctv can't be used to monitor our work ie spying on us teaching a lesson or the secretary typing in the office but it can be used if there is an allegation made. So I find it odd that it would be used to monitor your work if you are just in an office with no clients/members of the public.

Schools generally/often have cctv now - although not so much in classrooms (although this could just be because it's not feasible?). Friends who work with horses are on yards with cctv everywhere and they are checked up on. I'd have thought it was perfectly legal? Interested if not!

Thanks for all the comments. I checked out article 8 thanks Batfurger

When I worked in a department store they had CCTV trained on every till.
It was pretty clear too, they said they could read the numbers on the notes, never really bothered me, I did my job and didn't attempt any theft and you forget it's there after a while.

Yes I can understand that to be honest as you're working with cash.

I would be wanting to know what it was for.
Shops - I can understand - theft etc.
Schools - understandable - assaults etc.

Office with no visitors - can't think of any sensible reason that I would be happy with - speaking as an office 'worker'.

You can just phone ACAS and ask them about it, and they can intervene if you dont feel confident enough.

Apparently they're going in every room but no one told why