Do you need permission to film in public in the UK?
Every small crew asks this eventually, usually the night before a shoot when the client has casually mentioned that the best shot is outside the train station. Do you need permission to film in public in the UK? Mostly, the law does not care - but the person who owns the ground you are standing on often does. Below is how we think about it on commercial jobs: the question that actually decides it, the places that look public and are not, people in shot, drones, and how long each permission takes. We are a video crew, not lawyers, so treat this as a working map and check with the relevant body before you rely on it.
The short answer: it is about the ground, not the camera
There is no general law in the UK that stops you filming in a public place. Nobody needs a licence to point a camera at a street. What trips crews up is that "public" usually means "somewhere the public is allowed to be", which is not the same as somewhere nobody owns. So the useful question on a recce is not "is filming allowed?" but "who owns this, and what are we about to do on it?"
Streets and pavements
Councils look after the public highway, and their attitudes vary a lot. Plenty are relaxed about a two-person crew with a handheld camera that keeps moving and never blocks the pavement. Others want notice of any commercial filming at all, and nearly every council wants a permit once you add tripods on the pavement, light stands, a parked van, a generator or anything that makes a pedestrian step into the road. Road closures are a different scale entirely - traffic orders, police involvement and weeks of lead time.
The practical step is to search for the council's film office or filming page and read it before the recce, not after. Many ask for public liability insurance, commonly £5 million, and a short description of what you will be doing. A polite email that says "three people, handheld, forty minutes, no kit on the pavement" often gets a same-week yes.
Places that look public and are not
This is where small crews get moved on. All of the following feel like public space, and all of them belong to someone with a filming policy:
- Railway stations and the Underground. Owned and managed by rail and transport operators, who handle commercial filming through permits.
- Shopping centres and retail parks. Private land with public access. Security will ask you to stop, and they are within their rights.
- Parks. Usually council or trust owned, and many have their own filming rules and fees separate from the street.
- Canal towpaths and waterways. Managed by a trust that expects commercial filming to be arranged in advance.
- Heritage sites, cathedrals, universities, hospitals. All private, all with a press or location office, and hospitals and schools are sensitive for good reason.
The tell is simple: if there is a security guard, a ticket barrier or a car park with a sign, someone owns it. Ask before the day, and never promise a client a shot there until you have the email.
People in shot
In a public place, people generally do not have a right to stop you filming them walking past. That changes when someone has a reasonable expectation of privacy, when they are the focus of the shot rather than the background, and when the film is advertising something. For commercial work our rule is boring and safe: anyone identifiable and featured signs a release, children only with a parent's written consent, and passers-by stay soft, wide or out of frame. If someone asks not to be filmed, you stop - it is never worth the shot.
Drones
Drones are the one area where the rules really are about the camera. In the UK the Civil Aviation Authority sets them, and they change often enough that you should read the current guidance rather than trust any blog post, this one included. Broadly: registration IDs for the operator and pilot, distance limits from uninvolved people that depend on the drone and your qualification, no flying over crowds, and restricted airspace around airports that apps will show you. Commercial jobs also need the right insurance, and landowner permission still applies to where you take off and land.
How long each permission takes
The permission itself is rarely the hard bit. The lead time is, because it usually surfaces after the client has fallen in love with a location.
What we actually do
- Ask "who owns it?" on the recce. It sits on our location recce checklist next to power and parking for a reason.
- Get it in writing. An email reply is fine. A verbal yes from a receptionist is not permission, it is a story.
- Name one person who holds it. When security walks over, one person answers, calmly, with the email open on their phone.
- Carry insurance details. A PDF of the certificate on a phone ends most conversations in under a minute.
- Have a plan B for long-lead locations. If a permission has not landed by the day before, the shot moves or goes.
Put the permission where the crew can see it
The mistake we kept making was not failing to get permission - it was getting it and then leaving it in one person's inbox. So in Cinella, location notes live on the shoot and flow straight into the call sheet: the contact on site, the permitted times, the insurance reference, where the van can actually park. Everyone gets the same version, and on the day it is one tap away in Set Mode rather than buried in a thread. We built it, so take the bias as read. It is £19 a month, or £190 a year with two months free - keep your rate for as long as you stay subscribed - with a 14-day free trial and nothing charged if you cancel inside it.
The rest works in any tool: find out who owns the ground, match the permission to the kit you are bringing, and get it written down before you promise a client the shot.