Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Dr Brian Plastow has called on Scottish ministers to replace the 2011 National Strategy for Public Space CCTV in Scotland, that the framework predates the modern digital era and that the government's current review of his remit, alongside the opportunity to introduce a Scottish surveillance camera code of practice, represents a once in a generation chance to act.
His comments, contained in an article in 1919 Magazine , were made shortly before the Scottish Government published an analysis of consultation responses showing most respondents want his oversight extended beyond the three policing bodies it currently covers.
Plastow noted that the strategy has survived four first ministers, six cabinet secretaries for justice and seven ministers for community safety, while the intervening years have seen the growth of joint council and police public space surveillance systems and AI-enabled analytics products such as BriefCam. He said experts, watchdogs and parliamentary motions had highlighted that the strategy lacks centralised oversight and does not address facial recognition.
Unlike England and Wales, Scotland has no independent surveillance camera commissioner and no surveillance camera code of practice. Plastow's own functions under the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Act 2020 extend only to Police Scotland, the Scottish Police Authority and the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, and only to biometric data acquired for criminal justice and policing purposes.
External governance of public space surveillance operated by councils, transport bodies and private operators is therefore confined to UK data protection law, enforced by the Information Commissioner's Office under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Section 6 of the 2020 Act requires ministers periodically to review whether the commissioner's functions remain appropriate and whether the list of bodies subject to his oversight should change.
The consultation ran from 27 February to 26 May and the responses summary was published on 4 September. Fourteen responses were received, nine from organisations including the ICO, the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner for England and Wales, British Transport Police, the Scottish Police Authority and Howard League Scotland.
Two thirds of those answering considered the commissioner's existing functions appropriate, but 64% of those answering the second question said the list of bodies was not, with expansion rather than reduction the predominant view.
Respondents suggested extending oversight to other policing bodies operating in Scotland, including British Transport Police, the National Crime Agency, Ministry of Defence Police and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, and to Border Force, Immigration Enforcement and HMRC.
Others proposed the Scottish Prison Service and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, private contractors such as forensic laboratories and technology vendors, NHS Scotland, and local authorities and private organisations operating CCTV and surveillance technologies that generate biometric data relevant to policing.
Some called for prior authorisation mechanisms for live facial recognition, behavioural biometrics and advanced analytics, for the Act's definition of biometric data to be updated to cover behavioural and inferential biometrics, and for statutory memorandums of understanding between the commissioner, the ICO and the England and Wales commissioner.
Respondents also noted that any expansion would need matching resources, and the summary records that these are respondents' views rather than government conclusions. A report setting out ministers' conclusions is expected later this year.
In his article, Plastow attributed the current position to what he called ambivalence in the Scottish Parliament's former Justice Sub-Committee on Policing during the fifth session. He cited the sub-committee's 2019 report on Police Scotland's digital device triage technology, known as cyber kiosks, which he said set back the introduction of the technology by raising concerns about the legal basis for data extraction that senior counsel and the Crown Office subsequently confirmed did not arise.
He said the same ambivalence fed the sub-committee's February 2020 conclusion that there was no justifiable basis for Police Scotland to invest in live facial recognition. "I did not agree with that position in 2020, and I do not agree with it now," Plastow wrote.
The commissioner pointed out that live facial recognition is already widely deployed in private spaces in Scotland, where retailers and supermarkets match shoppers' faces in real time against private watchlists of suspected shoplifters.
He contrasted this with the motion passed at the SNP's autumn 2025 pre-election conference opposing future implementation of the technology by Police Scotland, asking why the party trusted supermarkets to use it against shoplifters but not the Chief Constable to use it against murderers, terrorists, rapists and paedophiles.
He welcomed the new Cabinet Secretary for Justice's acknowledgement of the Chief Constable's operational independence, which he characterised as rowing back from that position.
Plastow said the Home Office biometrics strategy is funding live facial recognition for every force in England and Wales following evaluations including one by the Metropolitan Police in which a tenth of arrests linked to the technology involved registered sex offenders.
Citing rising overall and sexual crime in Scotland, a significant fall in officer numbers since 2013, budget pressure and the early release of prisoners, he argued that a strategic shift from ambivalence to assurance in government thinking on all forms of public space surveillance and oversight is now required.
He referred to a June 2025 blog on his website setting out his reasons for supporting police use of the technology, including protection of women and girls from male violence, and noted that HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland has also urged Police Scotland to accelerate procurement.
The Scottish Police Authority has said no decision has been taken on live facial recognition and that any adoption would require Police Scotland to produce a technology-specific code of practice and demonstrate compliance with the commissioner's statutory Code of Practice, an updated version of which is due this autumn.
