Erasmus Research is looking ahead to the reconvened Undercover Policing Inquiry (UPI), with Tranche 3 (Phase 2) resuming on 2 February 2026. The evidence presented so far has been eye-opening. Detailed disclosures from Special Branch files on activists, justice campaigns and political groups provide a startling insight into the ‘secret state’, and testify to the persistence of campaigners seeking rights, truth and justice. Even seasoned activists have been struck by the lengths to which state agencies were prepared to go to disrupt legitimate political activity. Requests to extend the Inquiry to cover Scotland were refused by the UK Government, despite evidence that officers crossed the border and were also likely to have infiltrated Scottish campaign groups.
Although the Inquiry centres on the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), its evidence reaches beyond these units. Since the Inquiry opened in 2015, activists, trade unionists and community campaigners have described how undercover officers exaggerated perceived threats to democracy and produced intelligence that appeared to justify their continued deployment, rather than accurately reflect the activities of the campaigns they had infiltrated.
Undercover officers (UCOs) spent years embedded in non-violent groups: trade unions, anti-war and anti-nuclear campaigns, women’s rights, environmental, anti-racist and animal rights movements. More than 1000 groups are believed to have been infiltrated. Undercover Police reported on the personal and political lives of activists, often using the identities of deceased children to create their ‘legend’. Officers did not simply observe; they acted as organisers, treasurers and recruiters, fully participating in the campaigns they were spying on. Research and documents disclosed to the Inquiry indicate regular liaison between the SDS and MI5 from the 1970s, raising concerns about the political character of this policing https://share.google/NFRfGZWnRbLM6KUC8
Some of the most disturbing testimony to the Inquiry comes from women deceived into long-term intimate relationships with undercover officers. At least three UCOs fathered children with women they were spying on. Civil cases brought in 2011 alleged sexual and psychological abuse and human rights violations. In 2015, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Sir Martin Hewitt apologised to seven women, acknowledging that these relationships were a violation of the women’s human rights, an abuse of police power and cause of significant trauma. The Metropolitan Police also acknowledged, in June 2024, “the serious wrongdoing by some SDS UCOs and the mismanagement by SDS and MPS Special Branch (MPSB) managers that occurred during the T2 period” in its opening statement to the Inquiry Tranche 2, Phase 1 in https://www.ucpi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Commissioner-Lawyers-Opening-statement-T2P1.pdf
In their evidence to the Inquiry, many UCOs demonstrated a striking lack of remorse toward those whose lives they infiltrated. Their evidence highlights not only the callous behaviour of individual UCOs but raises serious questions about how such practices could have been tolerated within the SDS hierarchy. For the many individuals who were subjected to undercover surveillance by these UCOs, they must wonder how these men (and a very small number of women) could spend years embedded in campaigns for justice and equality yet remain completely distanced from these values; or from any (self)-awareness of the impact of their duplicity on the lives of men and women they had befriended over many years.
As Tranche 3 resumes, the Inquiry remains a crucial forum for examining decades of covert policing and for recognising the resilience of those who continue to demand transparency, accountability and justice.
The official UPI website provides extensive access to transcripts, statements and recordings of evidence sessions (although not all evidence or the identities of all UCOs has been made public). Tranche 1 Interim Report was published in 2023 covering 14 years of undercover policing activity by the Met Police’s Special Demonstration Squad (formerly the Special Operation Squad). https://share.google/YiV18cm6jN2Y0JqjV The five tranches of the Inquiry span undercover policing from 1968 to 2007 and so far, have constituted a substantial archive of material. Much of the evidence offers a rare and detailed social history of political activism in England and Wales, seen through the lens of state surveillance.
Independent researchers and campaign groups have also played an important role in analysing and contextualising this material. The Undercover Policing Research Group https://www.spycopsresearch.info/ provides valuable commentary and insights. The excellent work of Tom Fowler (follow him on Facebook and X – @tombfowler) consists of regular updates and accessible summaries of the hearings, often including conversations with non-state core participants, helping a wider audience understand what unfolds in each evidence session. His tweets and video updates are a great way of finding out what is happening and are a really valuable resource for getting reactions and responses from the activist communities and individuals involved in the Inquiry – if you are able to support the work he has been doing, please buy him a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/tombfowler.
Much of the evidence provided to date is shocking, unsettling and truly cracks the façade of ‘democratic’ society. Many of these UCOs appear to have limited recall abilities, selective memories and for some, delusional visions of themselves and the groups they were spying on. How can it be that these UCOs spent so much time around campaigns for justice yet seem to have such limited understanding or regard for the principles of the movements they infiltrated. It is disturbing to see their dispassionate and cold attitude towards the activists they befriended, lived with and spent time with. Their ability to represent themselves ‘in the field’ must have been in significant contrast to how they now present themselves in the Inquiry.
It is hardly surprising that the people whose lives were infiltrated have made such efforts to expose this state-sponsored subterfuge. Check out the websites for groups like Police Spies Out of Lives https://policespiesoutoflives.org.uk/; the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS) https://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/ and the Blacklist Support Group (BSG) https://www.spycopsresearch.info/analysis/blacklist-support-group-bsg. All of these groups also provide excellent coverage of the Inquiry. Kate Wilson’s book, Disclosure: Unravelling the Spy Cops Files https://policespiesoutoflives.org.uk/our-stories/kates-story/ is an excellent read.
The cumulative evidence emerging from the Inquiry suggests that undercover policing operated not simply as a tool for preventing crime, but as a systematic method of monitoring and disrupting political activism. It reveals how legal and democratic norms were suspended in practice, creating spaces in which UCOs engaged in conduct that would be unlawful for ordinary citizens. The Inquiry continues to provide evidence of how policing, in this context, functioned as a constraint on democratic participation and political freedom rather than a safeguard of public order. As Tranche 3 resumes, the Inquiry remains an essential forum for uncovering the truth about decades of covert policing. The evidence heard so far provides not only a record of state practices but also a testament to the resilience of those who have continued to demand accountability, transparency and justice. Whatever the Inquiry findings might be at the end of this lengthy process, watching the evidence unfold so far has been a dismal journey into the state, it’s clandestine operations and the efforts made to thwart the political engagement of citizens.
