Somerset House Trust/Somerset House Enterprises Limited Body Worn CCTV Cameras Privacy Notice
Our security personnel use body worn CCTV cameras (or ‘bodycams’) on our premises for the purposes of crime prevention and public safety. The bodycams are used to record incidents involving the public that warrant a recording to be made. An incident is considered as any engagement with a member of the public that, in the opinion of our security personnel, is confrontational, and may involve instances of aggression, threats or physical or verbal abuse.
Bodycam footage is recorded on the basis of our legitimate interest in deterring and detecting crime.
Prior to the commencement of a recording, our security personnel will, where possible, make a verbal announcement that recording will be carried out. Bodycams may record video and audio, and do not include facial recognition technology. Recordings are retained for 30 days after which they are deleted unless specifically selected for retention. We have taken appropriate steps to ensure that the recordings and the information on them are stored securely.
Recordings may be retained if they are required for further investigation. In that case, recordings will be retained until the investigation and any consequent legal or other remediation action has been completed. We will not share the recordings with anyone or transfer them outside the United Kingdom unless required to by law.
If you believe you have been recorded by a body worn CCTV camera, you can contact us using the details below to exercise your rights as a data subject.
These rights include:
• The right to receive a copy of your data. As this is a CCTV recording system without facial recognition capability we will ask you to give precise times and dates for the recordings you require. We may be unable to provide you with copies of any part of the recording which also includes images of other people in order to protect their rights and freedoms.
• The right to request erasure of your data. As with requests for copies we will require you to provide specific dates and times for the recordings you wish to have erased, and we may refuse to comply with your request if in our reasonable opinion such deletion would compromise our ability to use the system for the purpose for which it is intended.
• The rights to object to or limit processing. You have a right to object to the processing of your personal data. Please note that we may refuse to comply with your objection if we believe there are compelling legitimate grounds to continue processing that override your rights and freedoms.
Please note that this notice constitutes notification of the details of processing in accordance with Article 13 of the General Data Protection Regulation as enacted in the UK in the Data Protection Act 2018. Note also that the rights to correction and portability of data do not apply in this case.
Somerset House Trust and Somerset House Enterprises Limited are the data controllers of your personal information. The contact details to exercise your rights or to request clarification of any aspect of this notice are:
This privacy notice was published on 29 April 2026
This policy may change from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure you’re happy with any changes.
Please contact us by post or email if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you.
Our contact details
P: Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA
E: datarequests@somersethouse.org.uk
If you would like to raise any complaint related to our use of your personal information, please email us at: datarequests@somersethouse.org.uk
We hope we can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information, but if we haven’t been able to do so you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO, who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone: 0303 123 1113.