With respect to the council's use of facial recognition technology and/or CCTV systems incorporating facial recognition functionality, please provide the following information:
Watchlists
a) Does the council currently operate one or more facial-recognition watchlists?
The Authority acts upon request from Northumbria Police, the requests come in via email containing a image of the individual which we then upload onto the system as a 'person of interest'. The system does not necessarily have a 'watchlist' as such.
b) What criteria are used to determine whether an individual is added to a facial recognition watchlist?
Request from Northumbria Police as noted above.
c) How many individuals are currently included across all watchlists?
20 individuals are currently on the Council's person of interest list.
d) Has the council ever shared watchlist information with any third party, including police forces?
Information not held. Please see footnote which provides context into how data is shared with Northumbria Police.
If yes, please identify the organisations concerned and the circumstances in which such sharing may occur.
2. Facial-recognition deployments and use
Since 1 April 2025:
a) How many facial-recognition alerts or matches have been generated?
Information not held. Alerts are set up according to individual user preference and are subject to change on an hourly basis.
b) How many alerts resulted in intervention, action or review by council staff?
Information not held.
c) How many alerts resulted in information being shared with police or another external organisation?
Information not held. Please see footnote which provides context into how data is shared with Northumbria Police.
d) Has facial recognition ever directly contributed to the exclusion, removal, banning or identification of an individual?
The Authority has not directly used facial recognition to contribute to the exclusion, removal, banning or identification of an individual. The Authority does not hold information on whether Northumbria Police has used facial recognition for the purposes outlined in the request. This information would need to requested from Northumbria Police.
3. Governance and assessments
Please provide copies of any:
- Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs); - See attached redacted 'DPIA' and exemption applied notes below.
- Equality Impact Assessments; - See attached redacted 'Equality Impact Assessment'
- Human Rights Impact Assessments; See attached redacted 'Equality Impact Assessment'
- Privacy Impact Assessments; - See CCTV Privacy Notice here: CCTV privacy notice | North Tyneside Council
- Surveillance Impact Assessments; See attached redacted 'DPIA'
- policies; - See CCTV policy here: CCTV | North Tyneside Council
- procedures; See CCTV policy.
- governance documents; See attached redacted 'Data Sharing Agreement' with Northumbria Police.
- guidance documents; See CCTV Policy.
- standard operating procedures; See attached 'Security Services CCTV Footage Review and Release Procedure'
relating to facial recognition technology.
4. Suppliers
Please provide the names of any suppliers whose software, hardware, services or equipment are used in connection with the council's facial-recognition capability.
Verkada.
5. Procurement and decision-making
Please provide copies of any:
- business cases; - Information not held.
- approval papers; - See attached redacted 'Delegated Decision Report' - See full details of exemption applied below.
- reports; - See attached redacted 'Delegated Decision Report'. The CCTV Policy was last approved by Cabinet in February 2026. The report can be found here: North Tyneside Council Cabinet Meeting - 16 February 2026 (See item reference CAB105/25). The Covert Surveillance Policy went to Cabinet on - 24 November 2025. The report can be found here: North Tyneside Council: Cabinet Meeting - 24 November 2026 (See item reference CAB62/25). See full details of exemption applied below.
- presentations; - Information not held.
- committee papers; - Committee Papers are published on the website here: North Tyneside Council: Browse Meeting Papers Click on 'Search Documents' then use the keyword search to identify papers linked to CCTV
- decision records; - See attached redacted 'Delegated Decision Report' - See full details of exemption applied below.
relating to the procurement, introduction, approval or deployment of facial-recognition functionality.
6. Police involvement
Please provide copies of correspondence, emails, meeting minutes, briefing notes, presentations or reports exchanged between the council and any police force concerning:
- facial recognition;
- facial-recognition watchlists;
- biometric surveillance;
- CCTV analytics;
between 1 January 2024 and the date this request is processed.
See attached redacted 'Data Sharing Agreement' with Northumbria Police along with redacted email communications between the Authority and Northumbria Police. Communications dealing with requests for data or requests for adding individuals to the Persons of Interest lists are not stored once the request has been processed.
Footnote: The Authority operates a network of CCTV cameras on the Verkada system for community safety and the protection of individuals and public spaces. Granting Northumbria Police access to live and historic footage for prevention and detection of crime and anti‑social behaviour, and to support timely searches for vulnerable or missing persons, and secure vital evidential material.
*Redactions applied for personal data such as names, direct contact details, and signatures from the CCTV Footage Review and Release Procedure, the data sharing agreement, email comms, and EqIA, the removal of the locations of cameras from the DPIA, and the removal of one commercially sensitive £ value from the DD report. Full details below for the exemptions applied.
Personal Data - This information is withheld under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Information is exempt from disclosure if it is the personal data of an individual other than the requester and where the disclosure of that personal data would be in breach of any of the data protection principles.
Redacted DPIA, EQIA. Some information has been redacted as it is exempt from disclosure under section 31(1)(a)Crime prevention and detection.
This part of the request is refused under section 31(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The exemption under Section 31 (1)(a) relates to Law enforcement and is engaged when disclosure of the information under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the prevention or detection of crime.
Please see Here for further details.
Delegated Decision report. Please be advised, some information has been withheld under section 43 (2) Commercial Interests. Information is exempt from disclosure under section 43(2) when its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).
We consider some of the information contained within the Delegated Decision report to be commercially sensitive and therefore, we have redacted parts of this information. We have considered the prejudice to the commercial interests of both the companies and the Authority. This is because there is a risk that release of the sensitive information we have redacted would prejudice the ability to negotiate in a commercial environment and attract unique bids for any future contracts.
In addition, disclosing sensitive pricing information and contract particulars may well cause other suppliers to decline to bid for future North Tyneside Council contracts (if they believe that we will disclose the exact details of their offer to the Authority, for example, to their competitors under the FOIA) and therefore may prove detrimental to achieving adequate competition in tenders published in the future. In turn this would reduce their ability to obtain value for money and may result in a less advantageous outcome for the taxpayer. Therefore, we have concluded the release of the information we have redacted would prejudice the commercial interests of the Authority and some of our other suppliers, and that Section 43(2) of the FOIA is engaged.
Reasons why the public interest in maintaining the exclusion outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information: Having concluded the Section 43(2) (commercial interests) exemption of the FOIA is engaged we have considered the balance of the public interest. We recognise that there is a strong public interest in organisations operating with openness and transparency. However, this needs to be weighed against the public interest in protecting commercial interests and strong competition. We are releasing the report that details the decision and describes the goods and services that are the subject of the contract; and have only withheld one element that we deem to be highly sensitive, and which would be useful to our existing contractors’ competitors. Competitors would be able to take advantage of our existing suppliers’ commercial information, causing detriment to one supplier over another, and this would not be in the public interest. In conclusion we believe that maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing