Why has this report been published now?
The retired judge Sir John Mitting has been leading a public inquiry examining the conduct of undercover police officers who spied on more than 1,000 political groups between 1968 and at least 2010. At least 139 undercover officers in deployments typically lasting four years were sent to infiltrate mainly leftwing and progressive groups.
On Thursday Mitting published his first report arising out of the inquiry’s work, setting out his findings from the initial set of hearings. This is a significant moment in what has become known as the “spy cops” scandal.
His inquiry has been looking at the covert operations chronologically and so this first report scrutinises the infiltration of political groups between 1968 and 1982.
Why was the inquiry set up?
In 2014 Theresa May, the then home secretary, commissioned the inquiry following the Guardian’s revelation that undercover officers had spied on the family of Stephen Lawrence during their campaign to compel police to investigate properly the racist murder of their son. May called the revelations “profoundly shocking and disturbing”.
It also followed revelations that undercover officers regularly deceived women into long-term sexual relationships. At least four of the undercover officers are known or alleged to have fathered children with women they met during their deployments.
So far, between the mid-1970s and 2010 at least 20 police spies are known to have formed sexual relationships with women without disclosing their true identities. Many of these undercover officers were unmasked by the women themselves after long investigations.
This deception is a key issue in front of the inquiry. A former undercover officer, Graham Coates, testified that his colleagues made “gross and offensive” jokes about the women they were deceiving into having sexual relationships. He added that the jokes and banter were said in the presence of managers who knew about the relationships but deliberately turned a blind eye.
What happens next?
Mitting will hold further hearings to examine the covert infiltration of political groups in the decades since 1983. The next round of hearings is due to start next spring.
The undercover officers joined political groups and pretended to be activists. However, their real job was to collect information about the campaigners and their protests and send secret reports back to their bosses.
Mitting is expected to continue looking at whether this infiltration was too intrusive. He will also continue scrutinising how the undercover officers stole the identities of dead children to use as the basis of their fake personas. He is also expected to examine how police repeatedly spied on black justice groups, including several run by grieving families whose relatives were killed by police or died in custody.
Another issue under the microscope is how activists were allegedly unjustly convicted for offences connected to protests because key evidence gathered by the undercover officers was concealed.
The inquiry, which has so far cost £64m, has been slow-moving and is not expected to end before 2026.
Are undercover police still infiltrating political groups?
It is difficult to know. At one point in the inquiry, Mitting told police he wanted to know if undercover officers were currently been used to spy on political groups. No answer has been given in public so far.
State agencies such as the Security Service (MI5) and the police have routinely monitored political groups using a variety of techniques. As well as undercover officers, the state has recruited informers within political movements, intercepted emails and tapped phones. In 2021, a Black Lives Matter activist exposed how a covert police unit in Wales tried to persuade her to become an informant.
