The extension of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to enforce congestion zones may be illegal and the UK extends its use ‘at our peril’, the government’s surveillance tsar has said.
Responding to London Mayor Sadiq Khan‘s plan to expand the city’s low emission zones to include all of greater London, he said the legality of the use of ANPR in this way is ‘questionable’ and ‘there is little evidence that it would benefit society’.
A public consultation on Mr Khan’s proposal to expand the ultra-low emission zones to cover all of London’s boroughs from August 2023 closed on Friday (July 29).
These would also see the fine for not paying the £12.50 daily charge increase to £180 – but data last year suggested as many as a third of fines are never paid.
As of September 2021, 982,145 non-compliance penalties had been issued by TfL, but 336,637 of these remained unpaid.
Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, Professor Fraser Sampson, released a statement on the UK…
