Crackdown on Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras

Home Secretary Theresa May has ordered a review of Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras, which could see restrictions put in place on their uses and who can access the images.

The ANPR system takes a photograph of the number plate, and allows authorities to follow the vehicle for hundreds of miles. All details are logged on a central database.

However campaign groups claim the intrusive system is open to misuse. 

Dylan Sharpe, campaign director for Big Brother Watch, told the Daily Mail, “ANPR cameras are an unnecessary and indiscriminate invasion of privacy.

“A detailed review is not only vitally important it is long overdue.”

The review is likely to change the amount of time images can be retained for and restrictions on who can access the database and why.