Undercover Policing Inquiry’s Tranche 1 (Phase 3) hearings start Monday

6 May 2022

On Monday 9 May, the Undercover Policing Inquiry will start its Tranche 1 (Phase 3) hearings with three days of opening statements, followed by seven days of evidence hearings. The evidence hearings will be in person at the Thistle Marble Arch Hotel (formerly the Amba Hotel) in London.

Opening statements
Evidence hearings
Evidence disclosure
Opening statements schedule
Evidence hearings schedule
Relevant officers and managers

Opening statements

Opening statements will take place from Monday 9 May to Wednesday 11 May. The Inquiry will hear 14 separate oral opening statements specific to Phase 3 of Tranche 1, including a statement from David Barr QC Counsel to the Inquiry. Oral statements will be streamed – in real-time – on YouTube. Recordings of the opening statements will remain available on the Inquiry website. For the opening statement from David Barr QC Counsel to the Inquiry, the accompanying written statement will be published shortly after the oral statement has finished. For all other oral statements, the accompanying written statement will be published shortly before the oral statement begins.

Evidence hearings

The Tranche 1 (Phase 3) evidence hearings will take place from Thursday 12 May to Friday 20 May. In this phase, the Inquiry will primarily hear evidence from those in the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) supervisory chain of command during the period July 1968 to December 1983. The Inquiry will also hear from two civilian witnesses – Lindsey German and Elizabeth Leicester – who did not give oral evidence at previous hearings.

Nine witnesses are currently due to give oral evidence. These witnesses include the two civilian witnesses and seven former SDS managers. In addition:

Six SDS managers will have summaries of their evidence read out; and
Eleven SDS managers will have documents associated with them introduced and published on the Inquiry website.

Following proceedings

You can follow the evidence hearings either remotely through an audio stream with a 10-minute delay on YouTube or in-person at the Thistle Marble Arch Hotel (formerly the Amba Hotel) in central London.

An audio-visual stream with a 10-minute delay will replace the audio-only stream for the oral evidence of both civilian witnesses, at their request. Readouts of evidence summaries will also have an audio-visual stream with a 10-minute delay on YouTube.

The YouTube streams will have automatic captions available and the capability to be paused and rewound.

The Thistle Marble Arch Hotel is open to core participants, the media and the general public. Those attending the hotel will be able to see and hear all but two of the witnesses giving oral evidence in-person; following special measure applications, HN 3378 and HN 3093 will give their evidence via video link. A restriction order will be in place preventing any reporting on what is heard in the hearing room for 10 minutes.

Registration to attend the Thistle Marble Arch Hotel is now closed. If you would like to attend but have not registered, please contact [email protected].

Draft transcripts will be published as soon as possible after the hearing day has finished.

Further details on the hearings, including links to the YouTube streams, schedules, associated publications can be found on the respective hearing pages.

Evidence disclosure

The hearing bundle for Phase 3 of Tranche 1 contains around 700 files, of which around 360 have not previously been published on the Inquiry website.

The bundle includes written witness statements, intelligence reports and a timeline illustrating the start and end dates, as well as the ranks, of former SDS officers and those in the SDS supervisory chain of command for the period July 1968 – December 1983 inclusive. Additionally, the bundle includes a mixture of attributed transcripts and unattributed excerpts from closed hearings held in Autumn 2021, where the Inquiry heard oral evidence from five Tranche 1 undercover officers who are subject to restriction orders over both their real and cover names.

The entire bundle, with the necessary redactions, will be published on the Inquiry website. All materials associated with a witness will be published as soon as they begin their oral evidence or have summaries of their evidence read out.

As soon as evidence is published, it will be available on the ‘Published evidence’ page, the page for the hearing day it was published on and, if applicable, the profile page of the associated witness.

This evidence will be in addition to nearly 3,000 files that have already been published on the Inquiry website as part of previous hearings.

Opening statements schedule

Please note that the timings provided below are subject to change. You can find detailed schedules with the most up-to-date timings on the hearing day pages, which can be accessed by clicking on the hearing titles.

UCPI Opening Statements: Tranche 1 (Phase 3) | Day 1 (Mon 9 May)

10:00 AM: David Barr QC (Counsel to the Inquiry)
2:00 PM: Peter Skelton QC (Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis)
3:15 PM: Oliver Sanders QC (Designated Lawyer’s Core Participant Group)
4:25 PM: David Barr QC (Introduction of the witness statements and exhibits of John Rees, Joan Rudder, Roy Battersby and Diane Langford)

UCPI Opening Statements: Tranche 1 (Phase 3) | Day 2 (Tue 10 May)

10:00 AM: Catherine Brown (The Secretary of State for the Home Department)
10:55 AM: James Scobie QC (Lindsey German, ‘Mary’ and Richard Chessum)
12:05 PM: Fiona Murphy (The Category F Core Participants)
12:45 PM: Charlotte Kilroy QC (The Category H Core Participants)
2:15 PM: Charlotte Kilroy QC (‘Madeleine’ and Diane Langford)
2:55 PM: Owen Greenhall (Peter Hain, Ernest Rodker, & Jonathan Rosenhead)
3:35 PM: Owen Greenhall (Celia Stubbs)

UCPI Opening Statements: Tranche 1 (Phase 3) | Day 3 (Wed 11 May)

10:00 AM: Rajiv Menon QC (Tariq Ali, Piers Corbyn & Ernie Tate)
10:40 AM: Dave Morris
11:30 PM: Kristen Heaven (Other Non-Police, Non-State Core Participants [through the co-ordinating group])
12:40 PM: Summary of Evidence of Madeleine and Julia Poynter

Evidence hearings schedule

UCPI Evidence Hearings: Tranche 1 (Phase 3) | Day 4 (Thu 12 May)

10:00 AM: Lindsey German

UCPI Evidence Hearings: Tranche 1 (Phase 3) | Day 5 (Fri 13 May)

10:00 AM: Elizabeth Leicester
11:45 AM: HN 218

UCPI Evidence Hearings: Tranche 1 (Phase 3) | Day 6 (Mon 16 May)

10:00 AM: Summary of evidence of HN 3095
10:10 AM: Introduction of the documents associated with HN 325, HN 474, HN 1251 and PN 1748
10:25 AM: HN 103
2:00 PM: HN 3093

UCPI Evidence Hearings: Tranche 1 (Phase 3) | Day 7 (Tue 17 May)

10:00 AM: Summary of evidence of HN 2401
10:10 AM: Introduction of the documents associated with HN 294, HN 332, HN 819 and HN 357
10:25 AM: HN 3378

UCPI Evidence Hearings: Tranche 1 (Phase 3) | Day 8 (Wed 18 May)