The MPS Film Unit manages complex commercial filming across London and provides officers where filming is taking place on location and the filming requires police assistance or supervision.
The Film Unit is the single point of contact for advising, managing and supervising the film industry when filming on the move on the roads covered by the 32 London Boroughs. We are able to advise productions on the most effective way to film on the move, provide 'no objections' and of course deploy officers to supervise and assist where required.
For productions planning extensive driving sequences, the Film Unit will liaise with the Location Manager, Stunt Co-ordinator and traffic management company to enable a 'joined up' approach to be taken towards reducing risk and ensuring the safety of the cast and crew. The Film Unit is also able to provide marked police vehicles to implement a 'Rolling Road' to assist with the safety of members of the public, the film crew and other road users and to ensure that hero vehicles, action vehicles and camera vehicles do not endanger or come into contact with other road users.
The Film Unit publish three three documents annually and they are available to download from our website:
- MPS Guidelines to Filming on the Move
- MPS Guidelines to Filming on Location
- MPS Guidelines to International Productions
With a cadre of 276 officers, the Film Unit provide officers for approx 2,000 filming days per annum and it is part of the Film London Partnership which is supported by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the MPS, the Mayor Of London and Film London.
The MPS Film Unit is a member of the Film London Executive Task Force chaired by Lord David Puttnam, sits on the Health & Safety Executive Joint Advisory Committee for Entertainment and is affiliated with the Production Guild
