Chinese CCTV cameras are being used at Army bases over a year since they should have been replaced, it has emerged.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) directed in November 2021 that all cameras supplied by two Chinese firms with links to Beijing’s spy agencies should have been taken down.
The Chinese technology companies Hikvision and Dahua have long been linked with the People’s Liberation Army of China, although they deny handing any data to the Ministry of State Security, an internal spy agency.
However, as both companies are subject to China’s national intelligence law, they are required to hand over any information the country’s police and intelligence services require.
The controversial cameras are currently installed at sites including Hyde Park Barracks, home to the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, responsible for ceremonial duties including the upcoming Coronation of King Charles III on May 6.
Other locations include the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, south-east London, where the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery is based.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader who has sent Freedom of Information requests to all government departments asking if they used any Hikvision and Dahua cameras, said: “The MoD has to own up to it, accept what has gone wrong and say we are now putting it right and getting rid of all the cameras.”
Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the Commons defence select committee, said: “It's surprising to learn that the British Army is using Chinese camera systems that Beijing deploys to monitor its own population.”
Cameras 'subject to strict security requirements'
Mr Ellwood called for a Cabinet-led inquiry, but said that the process should not stop the MoD acting now “to ensure their systems are not relying on Chinese surveillance technology”.
Last April, Sajid Javid, the health secretary at the time, banned the use of cameras made by the two Chinese firms and the European Parliament has also refused to employ the technology, according to Mail Online.
In November 2022 – a year after the original MoD directive – Oliver Dowden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, urged all government departments to stop using Hikvision, Dahua and other Chinese cameras that could send data back to Beijing.
He told Parliament: “Departments have been instructed to cease deployment of such equipment onto sensitive sites, where it is produced by companies subject to the National Intelligence Law of the People’s Republic of China.”
A Hikvision spokesman told Mail Online that its cameras adhered to the law and were “subject to strict security requirements”.
They added “technical analysis of our products have never indicated they are a threat to the national security of the UK”.
An MoD spokesman said: “We take the security of our premises extremely seriously and scrutinise the integrity of those arrangements regularly. It is wrong to suggest our sites are compromised.”
