29 Oct 2020

Updated 3 November with amended opening statements schedule

On Monday 2 November, the Undercover Policing Inquiry will start its hearings with seven days of opening statements, followed by seven days of evidence hearings. The hearings will be virtual and conducted remotely due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Contents

  1. Opening statements
  2. Evidence hearings
  3. Evidence disclosure
  4. Opening statements schedule
  5. Evidence hearings schedule
  6. Relevant officers and managers

Opening statements

Opening statements will take place between Monday 2 November and Tuesday 10 November. Legal representatives of 28 different organisations, groups and individuals, as well as David Barr QC Counsel to the Inquiry, will deliver oral opening statements. Oral statements will be streamed – ­in real-time – on the Inquiry website. The Inquiry will endeavour to publish the accompanying written statement shortly before the oral statement begins. Recordings of the opening statements will remain available on the Inquiry website.

Evidence hearings

Between 11 November and 19 November, the Inquiry will hold its first evidence hearings. These evidence hearings focus on phase 1 of tranche 1. In this phase, the Inquiry will hear from undercover officers and non-state witnesses about the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) – which was initially called the Special Operations Squad – between July 1968 and the end of 1972 approximately.

Eleven witnesses will give oral evidence. These witnesses include two civilian witnesses – Tariq Ali and Dr Norman Temple – and nine former SDS undercover police officers. In addition, the written evidence from Ernest Tate – another civilian witness – will be read out in full, along with summaries of evidence from nine further SDS undercover police officers. The Inquiry will endeavour to publish a witness’ written statement on the Inquiry website shortly before they give their oral evidence.

The evidence hearings will be live-streamed – in real-time – to the Amba Hotel Marble Arch in London, which is open to core participants, the media and the general public. Registration has now closed. Those watching the live-stream at the Amba Hotel will be able to see and hear all witnesses giving oral evidence. A restriction order will be in place preventing any reporting on what is heard for 10 minutes.

A live transcript of the evidence hearings will be streamed on the Inquiry website with a 10-minute delay. The full transcript will be published at the end of the hearing day.

The live stream of the opening statements and live transcript of the evidence hearings will be available on the respective hearing day pages. Links to the pages are in the schedules below.

Evidence disclosure

The hearing bundle for phase 1 of tranche 1 contains approximately 1,100 documents, amounting to about 5,300 pages.

The bundle includes written statements from around 20 individuals and the annual reports from the Chief Inspector of the SDS to the Home Office between 1969 and 1974, as well as intelligence reports and other documents.

The material within the bundle contains redactions, which have been made for a variety of reasons. Redactions may be made on public interest grounds or privacy grounds. Where the redaction is on the basis of privacy, this is shown on the document.

The entire bundle, with the necessary redactions, will be published on the Inquiry website: If the evidence is referred to during a hearing, it will be published as soon as possible after the morning or afternoon session in which it was referred to, on the relevant hearings page. All other evidence from the bundle will be published shortly after the hearings for phase 1 of tranche 1 have finished on the publications page of the Inquiry website.

Opening statements: schedule

Breaks will take place throughout each day but are not displayed below. Lunch breaks will typically take place between 1 PM and 2 PM.

The organisation, group or individual that an opening statement is being given on behalf of is shown in brackets below.

UCPI Opening Statements | Day 1 (Mon 2 Nov)

  • 10:00 AM: David Barr QC (Counsel to the Inquiry)
  • 2:00 PM: David Barr QC (Counsel to the Inquiry)

UCPI Opening Statements | Day 2 (Tues 3 Nov)

  • 10:00 AM: Peter Skelton QC (Metropolitan Police Service)
  • 11:30 AM: Gerry Boyle QC (National Police Chiefs’ Counsel)
  • 12:00 Noon: Richard O’Brien QC (National Crime Agency)
  • 12:30 PM: Nicholas Griffin QC (Home Office)
  • 2:00 PM: Oliver Sanders QC (Designated Lawyer Officers)

UCPI Opening Statements | Day 3 (Wed 4 Nov)

  • 10:00 AM: Oliver Sanders QC (Designated Lawyer Officers)
  • 11:45 AM: Richard Whittam QC (Slater and Gordon Clients)
  • 12:15 PM: David Lock QC (Peter Francis)
  • 2:15 PM: Angus McCullough QC (Category M Core Participants)
  • 3:30 PM: Rajiv Menon QC (Core Participants represented by Richard Parry and Jane Deighton)

UCPI Opening Statements | Day 4 (Thus 5 Nov)

  • 10:00 AM: Rajiv Menon QC (Core Participants represented by Richard Parry and Jane Deighton)
  • 11:30 AM: Matthew Ryder QC (Core Participants represented by Mike Schwarz, Simon Creighton, Tamsin Allen and Jules Carey)
  • 2:00 PM: Matthew Ryder QC (Core Participants represented by Mike Schwarz, Simon Creighton, Tamsin Allen and Jules Carey)
  • 5:00 PM: Donal O’Driscoll (Category L Core Participant [appearing in person])

UCPI Opening Statements | Day 5 (Fri 6 Nov)

  • 10:00 AM: James Scobie QC (Core Participants represented by Paul Heron)
  • 12:15 PM: Ruth Brander (Non-Police, Non-State Core Participant Group)
  • 2:00 PM: Lord Hendy QC (Fire Brigades Union and Unite [Category E Core Participants])
  • 3:45 PM: Gareth Pierce (National Union of Mineworkers [Category E Core Participant])
  • 4:15 PM: Dave Smith (Blacklist Support Group [Category E Core Participant])

UCPI Opening Statements | Day 6 (Mon 9 Nov)

  • 10:00 AM: Phillippa Kaufmann QC (Category H Core Participants represented by Birnberg Peirce, Hickman & Rose and Hodge Jones & Allen)
  • 11:45 AM: Helen Steel (Category H and L Core Participant [appearing in person])
  • 2:00 PM: Heather Williams QC (Category H Core Participants represented by Bindmans)
  • 3:15 PM: Heather Williams QC (Category F Core Participants)
  • 4:30 PM: Philllippa Kaufmann QC (Category H and J Core Participants instructed by Harriet Wistrich [excluding Newham Monitoring Project])

UCPI Opening Statements | Day 7 (Tue 10 Nov)

  • 10:00 AM: Imran Khan QC (Baroness Doreen Lawrence [Category G Core Participant])
  • 10:30 AM: Heather Williams QC (Neville Lawrence OBE [Category G
  • Core Participant])
  • 12:00 Noon: Imran Khan QC (Michael Mansfield QC [Category G Core Participant])
  • 12:30 AM: Andrew Trollope QC (Azhar Khan [Category I Core Participant])
  • 2:00 PM: Andrew Trollope QC (Azhar Khan [Category I Core Participant])
  • 2:30 PM: Dave Morris (Category L Core Participant [appearing in person])
  • 3:00 PM: Imran Khan QC (The Monitoring Group [Category J Core Participant])
  • 3:45 PM: Pete Weatherby QC (Category J Core Participant [Newham Monitoring Project] and Category K and L Core Participants)

Evidence hearings: schedule

The latest schedule can be viewed in the ‘Undercover Policing Inquiry’s evidence hearings in November to go ahead‘ press notice.

Relevant officers and managers

The hearing bundle for phase 1 of tranche 1 contains documents relating to 31 officers and managers, who are listed below.

  1. HN 218
  2. HN 68
  3. HN 331
  4. HN 323
  5. HN 327
  6. HN 334
  7. HN 318
  8. HN 329
  9. HN 330
  10. HN 321
  11. HN 335
  12. HN 322
  13. HN 328
  14. HN 326
  15. HN 333
  16. HN 135
  17. HN 336
  18. HN 340
  19. HN 346
  20. HN 339
  21. HN 349
  22. HN 45
  23. HN 347
  24. HN 343
  25. HN 338
  26. HN 348
  27. HN 345
  28. HN 325
  29. HN 1251/HN 371
  30. HN 332
  31. HN 294