Spycops Hearings Resume
Press release issued by COPS on 2 February 2026, as a new tranche of Undercover Policing Inquiry hearings begins.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 2 FEBRUARY 2026
Spycops hearings resume today
Victims set out their positions on the next phase of evidence
Today, the Undercover Policing Inquiry began hearing live evidence, in Central London. Five former undercovers from the notorious Special Demonstration Squad deployed between 1992 and 2007 will be giving evidence over the next two months. A series of ‘position statements’ by participants were published today on behalf of numerous participants including the Commissioner
for the Metropolitan Police and victims of abusive undercover policing.
The Inquiry has set out some of the questions it will be asking about the justification for spying on trades unions, justice campaigns, political parties and campaign groups, including Palestinian solidarity groups, as well as the accuracy of the intelligence reporting, the officers’ abuses, including blacklisting and sexual deception, as well as the impact of it all.
Following on from previous hearings about the police’s handling of the murder of Stephen Lawrence and spying on the Lawrence family, the Inquiry will explore how the tasking of undercovers focused on protecting the reputation of the police. In 2005 Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead in cold blood by the police, who then targeted undercover officers to spy on the campaign for justice. The Metropolitan police have proffered an apology to the family for the reporting on their campaign.
In the early 2000 this drive to protect reputations was expanded with a ‘policing’ focus on preventing embarrassment to the government, and protecting corporations and ‘UK Plc’.
The evidence is that they ran deliberate campaigns of harassment. We will hear evidence of how managers and undercover officers secretly plotted to disrupt democratic processes by targeting print shops, raiding people’s homes and deliberately harassing people, and we will hear from the victims about the psychological damage and disruption that caused.
The Inquiry will also hear from women targeted for deceitful sexual relationships where the evidence speaks of abuse and coercive control.
As with previous hearings, the Inquiry will hear about undercover officers’ roles in a number of high profile events, including the massive 2003 Stop the War demonstration against the invasion of Iraq, and the undercover officer who played a central role in planning the high profile 1999 Carnival Against Capitalism, often known as J18, which ended in widepread clashes in the City of London.
The extent of DC Jim Boyling’s role in organising the J18 event will be explored, alongside the decision by the Special Demonstration Squad to not tell the City of London Police the protestors plans, and Government claims that the police had no contact with the organisers and no way of knowing what would happen on the day. Boyling will also be questioned about his central role in
organising the first ever anti-genetic crop decontamination in Ireland.
DC Carlo Soracchi will be questioned about his attempts while undercover to encourage an arson attack on a charity shop in Maida Vale; and how he came to meet with police barristers preparing the Met’s defence in a civil case about the mass detaining of protestors, the 2001 Oxford Circus ‘kettling’, contributing to the police’s victory, and undermining the judicial process in a case which
set a major precedent.
This so-called ‘spycops’ inquiry is one of the longest and most expensive ever, and it has been plagued with delays. Nevertheless, its importance is probably best underscored by the final words of the Metropolitan Police in their position statement.
‘The human toll of the [Special Demonstration Squad]’s dysfunction has been severe and wide-ranging: misuse of deceased people’s identities, wrongful intrusion into individuals’ private and political lives, grievous sexual exploitation, damaged relationships, broken families, and widespread anger, distress and psychological harm (including to some of the officers themselves).
The MPS recognises how important it is to understand the damage that the SDS has caused, to hear directly from the people who have been affected, and for the Inquiry to hold those responsible to account.’
Hearings are taking place at the International Dispute Resolution Centre, opposite St Paul’s Cathedral. Core Participants affected by these deployments will will be available for comment at the hearing venue.
For live coverage of hearings follow @tombfowler on social media & see https://ucpi.uk/youtube/
Notes to editors
• The UCPI was established by Theresa May in 2015 after a series of revelations exposed by campaigners and the media. It is investigating undercover policing operations including secret political policing by the SDS and NPOIU, spying on 1000 left-wing political groups and campaigns between 1968 and 2014.
• A timetable of all those due to give evidence live and in person can be accessed here: https://www.ucpi.org.uk/2025/12/23/provisional-schedule-for-the-tranche-3-phase-2-hearings/
The public can view live proceedings online from February 2, 10am. It is also possible to attend witness hearings in person, please contact the Inquiry for more information.
• The SDS operated in secret for 40 years, targeting environmental and social justice campaigns, trade unions, anti-racist groups, peace movements, left-wing MPs, and families seeking justice after deaths involving police or racist violence and a range of progressive organisations.
The spies’ abuses include:
▪ Deceiving women into long-term intimate relationships, even fathering children.
▪ Spying on grieving families of those killed by racists or police.
Colluding in the blacklisting of thousands of trade unionists.
▪ Interfering and undermining the justice system, leading to miscarriages of justice.
▪ Stealing and using the identities of deceased children, to bolster the spies’ fake personas
▪ Infiltrating anti-racist, socialist and progressive campaigns, including Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE), the Anti-Nazi League, and multiple environmental campaigns – with the aim of monitoring, reporting on and disrupting them.
▪ Hoovering up personal details on thousands of people involved with or supporting
the campaigns targeted, passed on to MI5
• The Inquiry has already cost £114.3 million (to June 2025). The Metropolitan Police has spent an additional £70 million on protecting it’s secrets through anonymity, redactions and legal defence.
• The Inquiry published an Interim Report on 29th June 2023. https://www.ucpi.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2023/06/Undercover-Policing-Inquiry-Tranche-1-Interim-Report.pdf
On page 96, para 28, the Judge concludes:
“The question is whether or not the end justified the means set out above. I have come to the firm conclusion that, for a unit of a police force, it did not; and that had the use of these means been publicly known at the
time [the early 1970s], the SDS would have been brought to a rapid end.”
• The Met have also had to make a series of major public apologies, including for the targeting of women for abusive sexual relationships, for spying on black and anti-racist organisations and family justice campaigns, for the spycops routinely stealing the identities of deceased children, and for shocking failures of supervision of the covert operations. See
eg. paras 24, 29, 38, 71, and 80 in this Met statement of June 2024: www.ucpi.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2024/07/Commissioner-Lawyers-Opening-statement-T2P1.pdf
• Managers of the unit will also be giving evidence in Tranche 3 Phases 3 hearings, which are scheduled for June 2026. The Inquiry Chair, Sir John Mitting will then retire to produce his second Interim Report by 2027. Meanwhile a new Chair will be appointed to oversee the remaining Tranches 4 and 5.