David Davis' campaign since his resignation has prompted more discussion of a number of issues, one of them the number of CCTV cameras in Britain. One figure often given as evidence of the degree of surveillance is that there are 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK, or one for every fourteen people. This figure is confirmed in reports easily found via a Google search - at least in the form of "up to 4.2 million" or "could be as many as 4.2 million".
But what I haven't been able to find is the number of cameras operated by government or public authorities. Obviously a sizeable proportion of CCTV cameras are nothing to do with government - paid for and operated by pubs, shops and shopping centres and the like. So unless it is being suggested that private businesses be forbidden from installing CCTV on their own premises, the relevant figure in this debate is the number of non-private CCTV cameras, rather than the total number of cameras. Does anyone know what that figure is?
