Survivors of Spycops abuses fear Home Office ‘consultation’ is an attempt to shut down inquiry

This is a statement from Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance regarding the Undercover Policing Inquiry

Following elation at the progress of the Hillsborough law, victims of spycops were confronted on 16 July with a Home Office ‘consultation’ into the future of the Undercover Policing Inquiry.

We are shocked and surprised by the announcement and deeply concerned that this is an attempt to shut this Inquiry down. We have been requesting a meeting with the Sponsor Department of the Home Office for more than a year and have been stonewalled.

Now, we are presented with this multiple choice survey which clearly demonstrates that they have already considered the options without listening to us. We wish to stress that the delays and costs incurred by the Inquiry to date are entirely the result of applications for secrecy and lack of candour by the state agents taking part.

The timing of this consultation (in the middle of Inquiry hearings and at the start of the Summer break) will exclude many of those affected from being able to properly engage. The options on offer have real implications for how, and whether, the truth gets established, and we are considering the survey carefully.

We are calling on supporters not to fill it in until we have had a chance to respond.

The UCPI has been running since 2015, investigating abuses by undercover officers spanning five decades. One of the most expensive and longest running in British history, it has been hampered by the death of its first Chair and the imminent retirement of its second, with no replacement in sight.

So far it has only considered a single police unit, and is yet to consider some of the most important evidence, relating to abuses that took place under the existing regulatory framework that is supposed to protect us today.

Police actions to disrupt and stall proceedings (using tactics such as ‘Neither Confirm Nor Deny’, making numerous anonymity applications, and demanding extensive redactions of documents) prevented the Inquiry from even starting to hear evidence for the first six years, and continue to cause delays.

We believe that had there been a Hillsborough Law in place when the Inquiry started it would have saved much time and expense.

Since hearings started in 2020, the Inquiry has uncovered evidence of sustained misconduct and corruption. Some of the most important revelations of our time about secret state (and Home Office) interference in our political freedoms.

The constant stream of revelations has caused considerable embarrassment and led to multiple public apologies from the Metropolitan Police. We have no doubt that there are powerful interests who would want it shut down.

However, the Inquiry has yet to consider units such as the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), who employed one of the most notorious officers, Mark Kennedy. Many victims are still waiting for answers, and the Inquiry must properly consider all the evidence before key recommendations can be made.

We call on the Home Office not to hamper the search for truth and justice, and to allow the spycops Inquiry to do the job it was called on to do. We will continue to hold the police and public officials to account.

Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance

Campaigning in partnership with Police Spies Out of Lives, The Monitoring Group, the Blacklist Support Group and the Undercover Research Group.

Featured image via the Canary