Police Scotland database of motorists ‘without basis in law’

The Scottish Liberal Democrats have revealed a Police Scotland database of over 850 million number plate records is logged by a method that is not backed by any specific law.

Freedom of information requests by the party have revealed that 852,507,524 number plate records logged by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras across the country are held in a Police Scotland database, with data available as far back as 2009.

The national force is now capturing details of over 200 million journeys each year.

There is no law that specifically enables ANPR in Scotland or which underpins its use. ANPR is not limited to police forces and other law enforcement agencies, with bodies such as Transport Scotland also operating systems.

The news comes amidst criticism of the single force’s moves earlier this month to remove domestic abusers from their homes in a bid to pre-empt instances of domestic abuse – without any basis in law.

Commenting on the figures, the party’s justice spokeswoman Alison McInnes said: “The figures acquired by Scottish Liberal Democrats have revealed Police Scotland’s ANPR database is holding a gargantuan amount of data on innocent motorists. I find it disturbing the national force is now in possession of 850 million snapshots of people’s journeys from the last seven years.

“ANPR cameras can be useful in locating stolen vehicles and identifying uninsured motorists but we’ve not been given any evidence to show just how effective they are at doing that.

“The overwhelming majority of these 850 million snapshots will belong to entirely innocent motorists and it is surely not proportionate or necessary to keep these for years on end.”