Calls for meeting with Home Secretary over undercover policing inquiry ‘crisis’

Campaigners who were targeted by undercover police have called for an urgent meeting with the Home Secretary amid concerns a public inquiry into the issue is at crisis point.

Members of groups including Police Spies Out of Lives, the Blacklist Support Group and the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance delivered a letter to the Home Office on Monday.

They are calling for the current end date for the mammoth inquiry into undercover policing, in December 2026, to be lifted.

The letter says: “The currently imposed arbitrary hearing dates and proposed final date for publication of the final report are causing chaos and unfairness.”

It continues: “There is a real risk that the inquiry will not be able to get to the truth and considerable public funds will have been wasted in the process.”

Asking for an urgent meeting with Yvette Cooper, the letter adds: “This meeting is needed because the non-police, non-state core participants are concerned that the inquiry is at crisis point, and that the result of this is that a significant burden is being placed on many of those who have already suffered significantly at the hands of the state.”

Then-home secretary Theresa May set up the Undercover Policing Inquiry in 2015 after a public outcry over the actions of undercover officers.

This included women tricked into sexual relationships with men that they did not know were police officers, some even having children; the use of deceased children’s identities without their families’ knowledge; and spying on justice campaigns.

To date it has cost just over £88 million, and is currently due to publish its final report at the end of 2026 if enough funding is available.

The inquiry still has a massive amount of information and evidence to tackle covering the SDS (Special Demonstration Squad) between 1993 and 2007, then its successor squad the National Public Order Intelligence Unit.

It then plans to look at other undercover policing activities, before examining current practices and what should happen in the future.

The latest batch of hearings in the inquiry, looking at the since disbanded secret Metropolitan Police unit the SDS between 1983 and 1992, is due to resume on September 30.

Jessica from Police Spies Out of Lives said: “There were massive delays at the start of this investigation.

“They spent nine years and over £82 million mainly on undercover officers’ applications for anonymity and state applications for secrecy and that process is still ongoing.

“Now the victims in this inquiry are being squeezed up against arbitrary deadlines.

“Witnesses are not being given time to view the files before being asked to give evidence and that is causing real distress.

“The disparity in time given to us and to the state is completely unfair.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Evidence heard by the Undercover Policing Inquiry has highlighted the distressing impact undercover policing has had in the past which must never be repeated.

“It is important for those affected that the inquiry comes to its conclusions swiftly and fairly, to bring accountability and closure.”

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