The following are extracts from a letter sent to the Home Office by the SpyCops campaign regarding the current inquiry into undercover policing, including against the Socialist Party and its members. A demonstration is taking place on Friday 18 September at 11am at the Home Office, Marsham Street, London. For more on SpyCops see ‘Spycops ‘unjustified’ – The fight for justice goes on’
Dear Home Office,
I am writing in response to your consultation announced on 16 July 2026 about the future of the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI).
The Inquiry has so far only considered one single undercover unit, the ‘Special Demonstration Squad’ (SDS), which was shut down by 2008. In the course of its investigations the Inquiry has seen and heard evidence of very serious misconduct, even criminality, by police officers. Some of this would never have been uncovered, had the police records not been shown to the people they were unaccountably spying on.
Some of the most egregious behaviour in undercover policing is yet to be heard by the Inquiry including, but not limited to, long-term, deceitful sexual relationships by undercover officers, miscarriages of justice, undercover police officers acting as Agents Provocateurs, and failures around the policing of racist criminal gangs. If the inquiry is at all curtailed at this point that evidence may never come to light.
It is therefore vital that the SpyCops Inquiry continues as a Statutory Public Inquiry, fully funded to fulfil its legal Terms of Reference, including Tranche 4 (the National Public Order Intelligence Unit), Tranche 5 (other undercover policing operations) and Module 3 (recommendations for the future).
The Home Office must not bow to the obvious vested interests wanting to shut down the SpyCops Inquiry. It is vital that you listen to the demands of the survivors of abuse, misconduct and unlawful deployments of undercover police.
