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Preliminary Hearing of the Spycops Public Inquiry
21st March 2018 @ 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Sir John Mitting
The Chair of the Undercover Policing Inquiry, Sir John Mitting, has announced another preliminary hearing of the inquiry.
It will be concerned with the anonymity applications by twelve former members of the Special Demonstration Squad and the ‘Lambert Report’.
Twelve Undercover Officers
On 5 March 2018 the Inquiry published 29 documents in connection with 12 Special Demonstration Squad anonymity applications. The documents comprise applications, risk assessments, impact statements and gisted medical reports.
A table containing links to those documents can be found here. The Inquiry Chair has issued a direction alongside these documents.
The Lambert Report
After SDS officer Mike Chitty’s deployment ended he secretly returned to the animal rights activists he had spied on to enjoy the social life and resume a relationship with a woman there. When this was discovered by his superiors, they commissioned Bob Lambert to investigate an appraise.
Lambert’s report was completed in 1994. It is quoted in the 2013 book by Guardian journalists Rob Evans & Paul Lewis, ‘Undercover: The True Story of Britain’s Secret Police‘.
A question has arisen about whether they are entitled to publish further extracts of the report.
On 28 February 2018 the Inquiry published a short direction concerning the Lambert Report.
In response to that direction, the Inquiry received submissions from Guardian News and Media, the Metropolitan Police Service and the Designated Lawyers.
The hearing will take place on Wednesday 21 March 2018 at Court 73 of the Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand, London WC2A 2LL.
Join us for a demonstration outside from 9am.
Future hearings are scheduled for:
9 May 2018 – to consider anonymity applications in respect of Special Demonstration Squad officers.
5 July 2018 – to consider anonymity applications in respect of National Public Order Intelligence Unit officers.
12 July 2018 – to consider anonymity applications in respect of Special Demonstration Squad officers.