The biggest CCTV hotspots in the UK

These cameras are present in many public places, from the high street to parks and public buildings, as well as private areas such as businesses and industrial areas. They have also become much more popular among the general public, with people choosing to install CCTV in their own homes, as well as the proliferation of smart doorbells which include a camera function.

With so many CCTV cameras in operation in the country, it is reassuring to know that CCTV operatives require professional training and a CCTV licence to monitor a surveillance system.

Following our previous coverage of CCTV in the UK, we wanted to revisit the subject, this time with a specific focus on public space CCTV provision, to see which local authorities operate the most cameras in public areas. To find this out, we at Get Licensed carried out a series of Freedom of Information requests asking for the number of fixed CCTV cameras in public spaces in each council area, as well as the amount spent by the council on CCTV provision in 2022.

North Lanarkshire has the Most public CCTV cameras in the UK

1. North Lanarkshire

North Lanarkshire Council has the highest number of public space CCTV cameras in the UK with as many as 1,310 across the area. North Lanarkshire covers an area of Scotland that borders Glasgow and contains many of the city’s suburbs and commuter towns.

1,310

Public space CCTV cameras

2. Bristol

Bristol City Council operates the second-highest number of public space CCTV cameras with 1,274. The largest city in the South West of England, Bristol is a busy built-up area which acts as the economic heart of the region, which will have played a part in the development of such a dense surveillance network.

1,274

Public space CCTV cameras

3. Hillingdon

The London Borough of Hillingdon is the local authority area with the third most public space CCTV cameras at 1,170. Located on the western edge of Greater London, Hillingdon is one of the more affluent areas of the capital region, which could have helped the council afford such a considerable CCTV network.

1,170

Public space CCTV cameras

Greenwich

911

Belfast

878

Ealing

733

Wigan

642

Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon

639

Telford and Wrekin

636

10.

Hammersmith and Fulham

581

Hillingdon has the Most public CCTV cameras per capita

Sheffield has the lowest public CCTV provision per 10,000 people

1. Hillingdon

Hillingdon has the highest number of public CCTV cameras compared to the number of residents, with 38.39 cameras per 10,000 people. This means that people in Hillingdon benefit from the most comprehensive CCTV coverage in the country.

38.39

CCTV Cameras per 10,000 people

2. North Lanarkshire

North Lanarkshire has the second most public CCTV cameras per 10,000 people in the UK with 38.37. North Lanarkshire could have missed out on the top spot due to it being a large geographical area with a much more spread out population than some of the more urban areas in our study.

38.37

CCTV Cameras per 10,000 people

3. Telford and Wrekin

Telford and Wrekin Council has the third highest number of public CCTV cameras per capita, with 34.22 for every 10,000 residents. Located just to the east of Shrewsbury, the Telford and Wrekin local authority area is largely rural with a comparatively low population, which will have helped to increase the per capita number of CCTV cameras.

34.22

CCTV Cameras per 10,000 people

Hammersmith and Fulham

31.70

West Suffolk

31.58

Greenwich

31.49

Bedford

31.06

Chelmsford

29.32

Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon

29.16

10.

York

27.27

1. Sheffield

Sheffield has the lowest number of public CCTV cameras per head in the UK, with just 1.06 cameras for every 10,000 residents. Sheffield only has 59 council-operated public CCTV cameras for a population of well over half a million, which could leave many parts of the city without adequate surveillance.

1.06

CCTV Cameras per 10,000 people

2. North Tyneside

North Tyneside has the second lowest proportional number of public CCTV cameras in the UK, with the council operating just 1.15 per 10,000 people. A part of the greater Newcastle Metro area, North Tyneside stretches from Wallsend in the west to the coastal areas of Tynemouth and Whitley Bay, covering many residential areas that don’t typically have as much CCTV coverage as city centres and business districts might attract.

1.15

CCTV Cameras per 10,000 people

3. Shropshire

The local authority with the third-lowest public CCTV provision compared to its population is Shropshire, where there are only 1.29 public CCTV cameras for every 10,000 people. The population of this largely rural area is quite spread out and few busy built-up areas warrant a considerable amount of CCTV, which largely explains why the number of cameras is so low.

1.29

CCTV Cameras per 10,000 people

Warrington

1.56

Newcastle upon Tyne

1.64

East Suffolk

1.94

Maidstone

1.98

Newry, Mourne and Down

2.25

South Lanarkshire

2.32

10.

Croydon

2.36

Barking & Dagenham spends the Most on public CCTV provision per resident

Bolton sees the lowest spend on public CCTV per resident

1. Barking & Dagenham

Barking and Dagenham has the highest per capita annual spend on CCTV at £12.36. This is far higher than any other council area for which we have data and is the only one to spend more than £10 per year per resident.

£12.36

CCTV spend per capita

2. Tower Hamlets

Tower Hamlets spends the second highest amount on CCTV provision per capita at £9.44. The total spend in Tower Hamlets is actually higher than that of Barking and Dagenham, at £2.95 million compared to £2.70 million, though its larger population of over 312,000 people means the spend per person is lower.

£9.44

CCTV spend per capita

3. Hammersmith and Fulham

Hammersmith and Fulham has the third highest spend per person at £5.09, with a total spend of £932,500 spread across over 183,000 people. This also means that all of the top 3 council areas with the highest per capita spending on CCTV are all in London, while 6 of the top 10 are located in the capital.

£5.09

CCTV spend per capita

Leeds

£4.10

Waltham Forest

£4.02

North Lanarkshire

£3.81

Southend- on-Sea

£2.96

Huntingdonshire

£2.85

Brent

£2.85

10.

Lambeth

£2.59

1. Bolton

Bolton is the UK council area with the smallest CCTV spend per capita at just £0.04. Bolton saw an annual spend of just £11,400 on CCTV provision for a population of over 296,000, which is minuscule compared to the spend per person in Barking and Dagenham, which saw a spend per capita that was 309 times that which was seen in Bolton.

£0.04

CCTV spend per capita

2. Belfast

Belfast City Council has the second-smallest spend per capita on CCTV provision at just £0.07. As the capital of Northern Ireland, Belfast is a busy city, being an important economic and political hub as well as being home to several universities and thousands of students. With this in mind, it may come as a surprise that CCTV spending in Belfast is low per head, with a total annual spend of just £24,378.

£0.07

CCTV spend per capita

3. Warrington

The Cheshire town of Warrington has the third lowest CCTV spend per capita at £0.13. Warrington is one of the smaller locations in our study with a population of 211,227, which means the conservative CCTV expenditure of £27,266 stretches a little further than similar figures would in larger towns and cities.

£0.13

CCTV spend per capita

Newcastle upon Tyne

£0.17

Coventry

£0.17

Birmingham

£0.18

Maidstone

£0.20

Fife

£0.23

Oldham

£0.24

10.

Bath and North East Somerset

£0.28

North Tyneside is the UK area with the greatest need for more CCTV

Hillingdon outperforms the rest of the UK for crime per camera

1. North Tyneside

North Tyneside has the highest crime per camera at 30.36. This ratio compares the amount of council-operated public CCTV per head with the local crime rate. This high score suggests that North Tyneside requires additional CCTV provisions to protect residents and businesses while preventing further crime.

30.36

Crime-CCTV ratio

2. Sheffield

Sheffield is the local authority with the second-highest crime per camera at 17.58. The historic city of steel in South Yorkshire has just 1.06 public CCTV cameras for every 10,000 residents, compared to 18.71 crimes.

17.58

Crime-CCTV ratio

3. Warrington

In third place is Warrington, which scored a crime per camera of 16.04. Despite the crime rate in Warrington being much higher than in second-place Sheffield at 25.07 crimes per 10,000 people, this North West town has much better public CCTV coverage with 1.56 cameras per 10,000 people, resulting in a higher overall score when comparing the two factors.

16.04

Crime-CCTV ratio

Newcastle upon Tyne

15.26

Maidstone

12.84

Shropshire

10.79

East Suffolk

6.65

Calderdale

5.86

Rochdale

5.78

10.

Croydon

4.07

1. Hillingdon

Hillingdon is the UK council area with the best crime per camera of 0.017, meaning it has ample CCTV coverage for the level of crime in the area. It’s safe to say that the 38.39 CCTV cameras per 10,000 people in Hillingdon will have contributed to keeping crime in the area at the incredibly low rate of just 0.67 crimes per 10,000 people annually.

0.017

Crime-CCTV ratio

2. Bristol

Bristol has the second lowest crime per camera in our study at just 0.033. While Bristol is a bustling city with one of the largest populations in the UK, the high level of CCTV provision considerably outweighs the low level of local crime, which stands at just 0.89 crimes per 10,000 people.

0.033

Crime-CCTV ratio

3. Greenwich

The Royal Borough of Greenwich in South East London has the third-best Crime-CCTV Rate in our study at 0.034, just a fraction higher than that of Bristol. The annual crime rate in Greenwich sits at 1.07 per 10,000 people, which is much lower than the CCTV rate of 31.49 cameras per 10,000.

A total of four London boroughs made the top 10 local authorities for their crime per camera, with Ealing taking 9th place with a score of 0.056, while Hammersmith and Fulham placed 10th with a score of 0.062. This suggests that London has much greater CCTV provision compared to its crime rate than other regions of the UK.

0.034

Crime-CCTV ratio

Bedford

0.043

Telford and Wrekin

0.044

York

0.048

Bath and North East Somerset

0.053

Chelmsford

0.055

Ealing

0.056

10.

Hammersmith and Fulham

0.062

Building a career as a CCTV operator

The prevalence of CCTV up and down the country highlights the size of the surveillance industry in the UK. With such a large industry comes a huge number of job opportunities for those with the necessary skills and training.

A full-time CCTV operator in the UK can earn up to £3,000 per month, or £36,000 annually, which is more than £6,000 higher than the national average in 2023, according to employment website Indeed.

Becoming a CCTV operator is great way to combine respectable earnings with a satisfying and rewarding career helping to keep the public safe from harm. To secure your first CCTV role in the UK private security industry, you will need to obtain a SIA CCTV Licence which you can book through our website. Training courses last 3 days and will provide you with all the knowledge and training you will need to build a successful career in CCTV surveillance.

Not sure if a career in CCTV is right for you? Why not give our CCTV Simulator a go to get a flavour of what working as a CCTV operator could look like.

Methodology

We wanted to investigate CCTV provision and spending in UK local authorities. To do this, we sent Freedom of Information Requests to all London councils, as well as to the next 100 largest local authorities by population.

In these FOI requests, we asked for the total number of fixed-location CCTV cameras in public locations operated by the council, as well as the total amount spent on CCTV provision in the 2022 calendar year. We received usable data from 79 separate local authorities, which was compiled to create this report.

First, we revealed the UK local authorities with the most CCTV cameras, according to the data provided. We then combined this with ONS population data to reveal the local authorities with the most and least council-operated public CCTV cameras per 10,000 people.

We then took the FOI data showing the amount spent on CCTV in each area and combined it with the same population data to reveal the areas that spent the most money on CCTV provision per resident, as well as the areas that spent the least.

Next, we used ONS crime data to compare the crime rate per 10,000 people in each local authority area with the rate of council-operated public cameras. This allowed us to calculate the crime per camera, with higher figures indicating that crime outweighs CCTV provision, and vice-versa. We used this metric to reveal the areas with the greatest and least need for additional CCTV provision.

Council data for the cost of CCTV was not available for the calendar year 2022 from some local authorities. In these cases, data for the 2021/22 financial year was used instead. All data reflects the information provided by the councils in their FOI responses, though respondents may have interpreted our requests in slightly different ways, which could affect the rigidity of the data.

Data showing the number of council-operated CCTV cameras in Sunderland was not included as they specifically stated that the vast majority of their council-operated CCTV cameras were mobile, meaning that the small number of fixed cameras in the city would give a false impression of the level of CCTV provision in place.