15 Jan 2018

The Undercover Policing Inquiry is today announcing that a hearing will take place on 5 February 2018. The hearing, in Court 4 at the Royal Courts of Justice, will consider the restriction order applications for five officers.

The hearing on 5 February 2018 is to consider any submissions made in respect of five officers HN23, HN40, HN241, HN322 and HN348, about whom the Inquiry published further information on 4 January 2018 (PDF, 38KB). Responses to these applications were directed to be provided 18 January 2018.

The Inquiry has received a witness statement from the legal representatives for the nonpolice, non-state core participants regarding HN297 ‘Rick Gibson’. The Chairman has decided that he will hear submissions on his provisional decision to restrict HN297’s (‘Rick Gibson’) real name at the hearing on 5 February 2018. The statement will be published in advance of the hearing if possible.

The scope of the hearing may change, and if other officers are to be considered the Inquiry will let relevant parties know and update the website.

Background

The purpose of the Undercover Policing Inquiry is to investigate and report on undercover police operations conducted by English and Welsh police forces in England and Wales since 1968. The Inquiry will examine the contribution undercover policing has made to tackling crime, how it was and is supervised and regulated, and its effect on individuals involved – both police officers and others who came into contact with them.

The work of the Inquiry ranges across the full scope of undercover policing work and will look at the work of the Special Demonstration Squad, the National Public Order Intelligence Unit and police forces in England and Wales. The Inquiry will also examine whether people may have been wrongly convicted in cases involving undercover police officers, and refer any such cases to a separate panel for consideration. The work of the Inquiry will fall into three modules:

  1. Module one will look at what happened in the deployment of undercover officers in the past, their conduct, and the impact of their activities on themselves and others.
  2. Module two will look at the management and oversight of undercover officers, including their selection, training, supervision and care after the end of an undercover deployment. This section will also look at the law and other rules covering undercover policing.
  3. Module three will make recommendations about how undercover policing should be conducted in future

NOTES TO EDITORS

  1. The current process for determining anonymity applications (PDF, 139KB)
  2. Further detail on applications made by the Special Demonstration Squad and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit
  3. The Chairman’s 20 November 2017 statement (PDF, 375KB)
  4. The Undercover Policing Inquiry is constituted under the Inquiries Act 2005 (PDF, 207KB)
  5. The Inquiry’s terms of reference were announced by the Home Secretary on 16 July 2015.
  6. The Inquiry’s Frequently Asked Questions (PDF, 96KB) document provides more information on the Inquiry more generally, as do published update notes.
  7. The Inquiry’s website is www.ucpi.org.uk and the Inquiry can be found on Twitter @ucpinquiry

For further information please contact the Inquiry’s press officer, Jo Coles:

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 07827 818 460