New Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner appointed

His role will be to promote compliance with the Surveillance Camera Code and rules on police use of DNA and fingerprints

The post replaces the two part-time positions of the Biometrics Commissioner and Surveillance Camera Commissioner.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “It is vital the Government works to empower police to use technology to keep the public safe while maintaining their trust and Fraser Sampson’s extensive experience in law and policing makes him the right person to take up this role.”

Ms Patel said the recruitment campaign was conducted in line with the Governance Code for Public Appointments. The statutory responsibilities and duties for both roles will remain the same, she said.

The Biometrics Commissioner and Surveillance Camera Commissioner roles were originally established by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which introduced the regime to govern the retention and use by the police of DNA samples, profiles and fingerprints, and to promote appropriate overt use of surveillance camera systems by relevant authorities in England and Wales.

Mr Sampson was formerly an Honorary Professor and Research Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University and is a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales.

He said: “I’m delighted to have been appointed to cover these two distinct but increasingly overlapping roles. I look forward to working with all partners in what is a fast-moving and challenging area of balancing the public interest considerations with the rights of individuals.”

Between 2016 and 2019, Mr Sampson was chief executive of the police, fire and crime commissioner in North Yorkshire. He was the chief executive and general counsel for the police and crime commissioner in West Yorkshire from 2006 and the executive director of the Civil Nuclear Police Authority. He was also a police officer at West Yorkshire Police and British Transport Police between 1982 and 1996.