CRISP is delighted to announce that it will be hosting a Question Time themed event on the future of surveillance cameras in the UK. The event is open to the general public and will take place in central London on 21st February 2018.

This event will follow the format of the BBC’s long running Question Time programme, it will be chaired by the BBC’s James Naughtie, and will give members of the public an opportunity to ask questions and debate issues associated with surveillance cameras.  Issues that are likely to be covered during the debate include the proliferation of surveillance cameras in the UK, their purpose and function, their effectiveness and consequences, and contemporary developments in technology, such as facial recognition technology, drones and body-worn cameras.

An esteemed panel has been secured for the event, including the following:

Chair: James Naughtie, BBC broadcaster and journalist
Panelists:
Tony Porter, Surveillance Camera Commissioner
Lord Brian Paddick, Lords Spokesperson for Home Affairs
Silkie Carlo, Director of Big Brother Watch
Simon Israel, Senior Home Affairs Correspondent, Chanel 4 News
Mike Barton, Chief Constable of Durham Constabulary and national police lead on CCTV
Host: Professor William Webster, CRISP, University of Stirling

This event will take place at the London School of Economics, 18:00-20:00 on 21st February 2018.  Entry is free, audience members must register a place via Eventbrite or via CRISP@stir.ac.uk 

For further information please contact CRISP@stir.ac.uk

Biographies

James Naughtie, BBC broadcaster and journalist
James Naughtie is best known as a presenter of the Today programme, which he anchored for over 21 years. He had previously worked on the The World at One, where he succeeded Sir Robin Day, following a career in newspapers, much of it as a political correspondent at Westminster. James has written and presented many documentaries on Radio 4, and prize-winning series including The Making of Music (the story of classical music) and New Elizabethans, profiling 60 of the most influential figures in Britain over the first 60 years of the Queen's reign. He has anchored every election results programme for BBC Radio since 1997 and a wide range of important events for both radio and television - from presidential inaugurations and Papal installations to D-Day commemorations and Royal funerals. As an author, Jim wrote The Rivals, a ground-breaking account of the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and books on music and American politics.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/4Nk2wdFZTsx2ySsQgQjfS21/james-naughtie

Tony Porter, Surveillance Camera Commissioner
Tony Porter was appointed Surveillance Camera Commissioner in March 2014. He has a combination of business and law enforcement expertise. He is an intelligence specialist (most recently within the financial sector) and retired senior police leader. His experience spans community and business engagement, international counter terrorism and serious and organised crime. His role as Surveillance camera Commissioner is to: encourage compliance with the surveillance camera code of practice; review how the code is working; provide advice to ministers on whether or not the code needs amending; and, provide advice and information to the public and system operators about the effective, appropriate, proportionate and transparent use of surveillance camera systems.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/surveillance-camera-commissioner

Lord Brian Paddick, Lords Spokesperson for Home Affairs
Lord Paddick was a police officer for over 30 years rising to the most senior levels of the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard.  He was widely praised for his role as police spokesman following the terrorist attacks on London in 2005. Brian later stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London in 2008 and in 2012. He was appointed to the House of Lords in September 2013 and in 2015 he was appointed as Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson in the Lords. In October 2016 he was made Shadow Secretary of State for the Home Department under Tim Farron.
https://www.libdems.org.uk/brian_paddick

Silkie Carlo, Director of Big Brother Watch
Silkie Carlo has recently been appointed as Director of Big Brother Watch. Prior to this, she was the Senior Advocacy Officer at Liberty where she led a programme on Technology and Human Rights and launched a legal challenge to the Investigatory Powers Act. She previously worked for Edward Snowden’s official defence fund and whistleblowers at risk. She is a passionate campaigner for the protection of liberties, particularly in the context of new and emerging technologies. She has worked to uphold rights in the fields of state surveillance, policing technologies, big data, artificial intelligence and free expression online.
https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk

Simon Israel, Senior Home Affairs Correspondent, Chanel 4 News
Simon Israel is a Senior Home Affairs Correspondent for Channel 4 News. He provides robust independent reporting of home affairs and covers: crime, policing, terrorism, public policy, race, immigration, social justice and prisons. Simon has been involved in a number of award winning films on terrorism, G20 protests, the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, illegal immigration and suicides in prisons. He has been home affairs correspondent since 1998 and has broken a number of exclusives, including the resignation of the officer in charge of counter terrorism, racism in the crown prosecution service, the abuse of restraint methods on detained children and the Government's resettlement programme for refugees.
https://www.channel4.com/news/by/simon-israel

Mike Barton, Chief Constable of Durham Constabulary and national police lead for Crime Operations
Michael is a proud Lancastrian and adopted Northeasterner who served in Lancashire Constabulary for 28 years before joining Durham Constabulary in 2008 as Assistant Chief Constable. He has been Chief Constable since 2012. Michael has long been a keen exponent of problem-orientated policing and integrated offender management, including restorative justice, and has successfully embedded these concepts in Lancashire and Durham. As the national policing lead for crime, Michael intends to use his position to ensure British policing is in the vanguard of tackling crime on the internet. He has attracted a degree of media attention through his advocacy for a ‘grown up’ debate on drugs – challenging the efficacy of outright prohibition.
https://www.durham.police.uk/About-Us/Our-organisation/Pages/Our-Executive.aspx

Professor William Webster, CRISP, University of Stirling
William Webster is Professor of Public Policy and Management at the Stirling Management School, University of Stirling. He is a Director of CRISP (the Centre for Research into Information Surveillance and Privacy), a research centre dedicated to understanding the social impacts and consequences of technologically mediated surveillance practices. Professor Webster has research expertise in the policy processes, regulation and governance of CCTV, surveillance in everyday life, privacy and surveillance ethics, as well as public policy relating to data protection, e-government, and electronic public services. He is co-chair of the Scottish Privacy Forum, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Information Polity and chair of the Living in Surveillance Societies (LiSS) COST Action. He is also involved in a number of international research projects, including the: SmartGov (smart cities governance), Increasing Resilience in Surveillance Societies (IRISS) and ASSERT (societal security) projects.
http://www.crisp-surveillance.com