CCTV

We are currently in the process of upgrading our CCTV systems around Swansea. These pages will be updated with the new information when the upgrade is complete.

Some of its CCTV systems are located on and around Council premises, such as inside and outside civic buildings, offices, workshops and depots and on the Council's housing estates.

Working as part of the Safer Swansea Partnership, the Council also operates cameras covering the city centre and other public spaces which are monitored 24 hours a day, every day of the year. More information about this system is to be found on our CCTV frequently asked questions page.

The purpose of all our CCTV systems is to help provide a safer environment for everyone by protecting people and property, deterring crime and helping to solve it when it happens.

All of our CCTV systems are operated in accordance with the Council's CCTV policy, which is based on codes of practice issued by UK government. Swansea Council does not uses facial recognition technology in its camera systems, nor has it any plans to do so.

Making a complaint about the Council's use of CCTV

If you wish to make a complaint about the Council's use of CCTV cameras, please use the CCTV complaint form.

Please be as specific as possible in your complaint, for example describe the location of the camera or cameras that you wish to complain about so that we are able to identify which department is responsible for them.

Your complaint will be dealt with within 20 working days by an officer responsible for the CCTV system in question. If you are not satisfied with the response, you will be able to pursue your complaint through the Council's corporate complaints process.

Please note that the Council is not responsible for the CCTV systems owned and operated by third parties, such as shopkeepers and private landowners. A summary of where Council cameras are located is to be found on our CCTV frequently asked questions page.

Access rights for individuals to CCTV footage

You have the right to request access to CCTV footage of yourself under data protection legislation but not to access that of any third parties.

If your request cannot be complied with without identifying another individual or individuals, and in the absence of permission from them, your request will need to be considered within the context of the degree of privacy they could reasonably anticipate from being in that location at that time, in accordance with the legislation.

Your request will also be refused if you have been the victim of a crime and our providing the footage to you may prejudice the work of the police in their apprehension and prosecution of the offenders.

Any footage will be edited in accordance with this principle before you are allowed to see it, or you may be refused access if the risk of prejudice to other individuals is considered high.

Due to the time and resources needed to view and extract information, speculative requests for CCTV footage which cannot give precise details of the location, date and time of the incident cannot be processed.

Our default method of making the footage available to you will be to arrange a mutually convenient appointment in civic offices for you to view it. You have the right to request a personal copy of the footage instead, however a charge will be made for any materials, postage and packing required to fulfil your request.

If you wish to access CCTV footage of yourself that you believe may have been captured by cameras owned by the Council, please complete the CCTV footage request form and supply scanned photographic evidence of your identity as required by the form.

Please note that Council CCTV footage is held only for a maximum of 31 days from time of recording (for some systems this time limit is 21 days), so you must make your request promptly following any incident.

If your request relates to damage to your motor vehicle while it was parked and unattended, you are able to ask your insurance company to make an access request on your behalf, as outlined below, but cannot use a subject access request which applies only to CCTV footage of yourself.

Reporting a crime which may have been captured on our CCTV

If you see anything suspicious which you think may be criminal activity, or if you are the victim of a crime, please report it to the police. If your call is non-urgent, report the matter to the police using the 101 phone number, or in an emergency dial 999. If you notice or noticed that there was a CCTV camera near the scene, tell the police this when you report the incident and, if you can, please give them the exact location of the camera.

If you have been the victim of a crime and if you report it to the police, they have powers to request a full set of CCTV footage from cameras operating in the vicinity and we will be able to release it to them in order to help apprehend and prosecute the offenders. The police will need to sift through all relevant CCTV footage, so the more detail you can give about the location, date and time of the crime, the easier the task will be for the police.

Access rights for insurance companies to CCTV footage of road traffic collisions

If you have been involved in a road traffic collision or similar incident which you believe may have been captured by one of Swansea Council's cameras, your insurance company can request footage under Schedule 2 Part 1(5) of the Data Protection Act 2018. The relevant footage, if held, will then be sent to them direct.

Your insurance company must complete CCTV footage request for insurance companies and provide us with a letter of authorisation from you to act on your behalf. To save time in processing the request, please advise your insurance company of the availability of this online application form when supplying them with your letter of authorisation.

This process involves payment of a non-refundable fee of £100+VAT. Please ask your insurance company to contact community.safety@swansea.gov.uk or telephone Gareth Pritchard on 07917 200079 in advance of completing the form and issuing payment in order to check that relevant footage was recorded at the time of the incident and has not yet been destroyed in accordance with the standard retention rules.