UK increases scrutiny on government use of Hikvision cameras

As a result of the U.S. crack down on government-funded deployments of Chinese-made video surveillance technology, the UK is now placing increased scrutiny on the use of Hikvision cameras by its various agencies throughout the country.

Last week, Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, reportedly banned the company from competing for new contracts within the Department of Health over concerns that the company’s technology has been used to keep tabs on China's minority Uyghur population by government officials in Xinjiang.   

On the heels of this news, UK Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner Fraser Sampson sent a letter to government ministers across the country asking them to clarify their positions on buying cameras from Hikvision.

Sampson, who has also raised questions directly to the company about the extent of their involvement in China’s alleged human rights abuses against the Uyghurs for over eight months reportedly without a response, characterized the Department of Health’s recent decision as a “step in the right direction.”  

“There are serious unanswered questions about Hikvision’s involvement in appalling human rights abuses in China. The company seems unwilling or unable to provide assurances about the ethics of some of its operations and about security concerns associated with its equipment,” Sampson said in a statement. “If companies won’t provide the information needed to do proper due diligence in relation to ethics and security, then they clearly should not be allowed to bid for contracts within government, or anywhere else in the public sector for that matter. If Mr. Javid has banned Hikvision for those reasons, then he should be congratulated.

“If the decision as reported is true, the same considerations would apply equally to all branches of government, and, arguably, the whole of the public sector,” he continued. “If other areas of national and local government have carried out due diligence in relation to their human rights obligations, I’d be interested to see the information they used; if they haven’t then I’d be interested to understand how the risks are being properly addressed.”

A spokesperson for Hikvision told SecurityInfoWatch.com (SIW) in a statement that Sampson’s has based his opinions about the company on “misunderstandings” about their products and “misinformation” regarding their business and operations in the UK. Hikvision also claims that Sampson has refused to engage with the company “under normal business circumstances.”

Here is the company’s statement in its entirety:

Hikvision takes all reports regarding human rights very seriously and recognizes our responsibility for protecting people and property. We have been engaging with governments globally, including that of the United Kingdom, to clarify misunderstandings about the company, our business, and to directly address their concerns.

Over the past few years, Hikvision has taken additional steps to increase transparency regarding its operations, governance, and corporate social responsibility, and is committed to closely working with the UK Government to further this ambitious program.

 It is therefore disappointing to learn that a decision has been taken to prohibit the purchase of our cameras in the Department of Health and Social Care. We want to work with government to ensure that procurement decision-making takes place in a balanced and proportionate framework and environment, based on mutual understanding. It is difficult to work on this basis when reviews are conducted without input from Hikvision, and we are denied the opportunity to explain details of our ethical, technical and cyber security standards.

 Moreover, the UK Commissioner bases his thinking on significant misunderstandings of our products and misinformation about Hikvision’s business and its operations in the UK. Despite repeated attempts to engage with the Commissioner under normal business circumstances, the Commissioner refuses to meet with the Company unless his unusual request to publicly post the contents of such a meeting on the Internet is met. Like any global company with proprietary or confidential information, we simply request our meeting with the Commissioner be treated confidentially. Our invitation stands.

In the U.S., the purchase of surveillance equipment from Hikvision as well as other security technology from Dahua and Hytera by government agencies was banned under passage of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Late last year, President Joe Biden signed the “Secure Equipment Act” into law, which requires the FCC to formally adopt a rule banning new equipment authorizations from the aforementioned companies, which will essentially eliminate their ability to bring new products to market in the country. U.S.-based companies are already prohibited from exporting products to Hikvision, Dahua and several other surveillance and AI firms in China after they were added to the Department of Commerce’s “Entity List” by the Trump administration in 2019.