National Undercover Scrutiny Panel

This article is part of the Undercover Research Portal - a project of the Undercover Research Group in conjunction with SpinWatch.

The National Undercover Scrutiny Panel (or Undercover Policing Oversight Board) is a working group established in 2014 by the College of Policing as 'part of a set of changes to providing greater transparency and review of undercover policing'. Little is known of it other than what has been released in a set of press releases from March 2015, which contained the terms of reference for the group, a list of members, and the minutes of a meeting on 22 October 2014. Membership is voluntary and unpaid; though brought together by the College of Policing, it is nominally independent of it.

It was established in 2014 under the chair of Chief Constable Alex Marshall, who had the power to determine who was or was not appropriate to invite. It has since met in October 2014, February 2015 and late April - early May 2015. According to the press release, the role of the panel is to provide external feedback and support the review of the evidence base for policing practice and standards. It is also expected to complete a review of undercover work by January 2016.

Though a few academics and civil society activists agreed to sit on the Panel, it is, however, dominated by police with connections to undercover policing, such as Mick Creedon who heads the Operation Herne investigation into the scandal. Since the Scrutiny Panel has operated behind the scenes since it came into existence, criticism that it is little more than a damage limitation and whitewashing exercise anticipating the public inquiry into undercover policing announced by Theresa May, has been limited so far.

• Also see the Undercover Research blog posting on Sophie Khan, the first member to stand down (June 2015).

Background

The work of the Scrutiny Group follows on from the work of a number of internal reports into undercover police:

• The HM Inspectorate of Constabulary's "Undercover tactics in public order and extremism", October 2011;
• The National Police Improvement Agency's "Review of the Selection, Training and Support of Undercover Officers", July 2012.

The findings of the inspection of undercover policing, commissioned by the Home Secretary and conducted by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), were released in October 2014 and highly critical of the National Undercover Working Group and its leadership. The Report pointed out serious deficiencies in the standards regime around undercover police work, including the 'culture of secrecy' and the 'closed nature' of undercover work that had led to a lack of accountability and scrutiny.

The Association of Chief Police Officers released a statement simultaneously, announcing various changes in the undercover policing regime, including "an oversight group [...] set up to build and maintain strategic support from chief constables.'

Theresa May, Home Secretary, wanted to act fast to restore confidence in the police and stated she had increased oversight and transparency in undercover work, including raising the authorisation level for undercover officers and strengthening the role of the independent Office of Surveillance Commissioners. She also wrote to the chief executive of the College of Policing and to the responsible national policing leads, Sir Jon Murphy and Mr Mick Creedon, asking them to set out an action plan and timetable for the police to respond to the recommendations of this report.

This resulted in the National Undercover Scrutiny Panel, set up by two officers closely linked to undercover policing themselves. Jon Murphy, the Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, is the National Policing Lead for the Crime Business Area of the Association of Chief Police Officers. and the National Crime Agency. Mick Creedon, Chief Constable of Derbyshire Police, is National Policing Lead for Serious and Organised Crime for both the National Crime Agency and the Association of Chief Police Officers.

Terms of Reference

The terms of reference for the Scrutiny Panel set out the good intentions:

This group will review, challenge and provide feedback on the standards for undercover policing. It will also consider the leadership, management and supervisory frameworks and the way undercover policing is presented to the wider public. It will identify what evidence might assist in developing future practice. Members will support each other in the challenge process.

The Panel will aim to

• Improve public confidence in the use of undercover policing tactics.
• Identify lessons from operations (not live ones), public inquiries or reviews, and make recommendations to the police service on how they should be addressed.
• Review and assess new and emerging undercover policing standards against tests of proportionality and necessity as well as wider judgements of social acceptability and practical applicability.
• Review the evidence base for good and effective practice in undercover policing including cost/benefit analysis.
• Advise on such issues as the ‘Neither Confirm Nor Deny’ policy, Agent Provocateur, Intelligence Deployments and other potentially sensitive or contentious areas.
• Make suggestions about the areas of undercover policing that merit deeper research or analysis.
• Assist in, and guide, the way undercover policing is described and presented to the wider public and consider how wider views and feedback might be gathered from victims of crime, practitioners and those affected by undercover policing.

From the minutes of the second meeting, it appears that the Terms of Reference is a revolving document and within the remit of David Tucker, a representative of the College of Policing.

October 2014 Meeting

The second meeting of the Panel took place at Avonmouth House in Lambeth, London, on 22 October 2014. It was attended by only 11 of 23 the Panel members and focused on the need to produce consistent training, standards and best practice across the UK in terms of undercover policing. It also noted there was cultural resistance to change in relation to undercover work within the police. The Scrutiny Panel and another unnamed 'peer oversight group' would ensure that the future framework for undercover policing was sufficient to measure the actions of undercovers. Psychological support was also cited as a key area to focus on. A programme of work was mentioned, apparently created by the National Undercover Working Group, which had been broken down in to the following areas:

National, Selection, Training, Mental Wellbeing, Continuous Professional Development, Authorised Professional Practice and Accreditation.

Exposure

The existence of the Scrutiny Panel came to public attention following a press release on the College of Policing website dated 12 March 2015. It presented the terms of reference for the Panel and some quotes from Alex Marshall, Sophie Khan and Sue Mountstevens.

The sudden openness was, according to the press release, in response to commentary on social media. However, we have not found any trace of such commentary. And - with the exception of Bob Satchwell - no member with a public profile mentioned their membership of the panel online. After the press release, only Sophie Khan has commented on her membership of the Panel, defending the need for public scrutiny in the light of what had come out about undercover officers having had long-term relationships with unsuspecting women. She responded to comments from police ranks who questioned her presence on the Panel because of her outspoken criticism of police racism and the use of tasers.

On 31st March 2015, the College of Policing issued and 'Updated statement' on the Scrutiny Panel In it, the College of Policing responded to criticism saying:

The College accepts and welcomes the need for challenge and we encourage it by inviting critics of policing to engage with those who work within the service and share their views with us.

The panel is the first time we have brought together a group of unpaid volunteers for this purpose. Those invited to join were identified for their experience, expertise or record of challenging policing practices. The make-up of the group continues to be shaped and those initially involved were asked as part of an informal process.

The work of the scrutiny panel is entirely voluntary and unpaid. Those who share their views with us in this way do not make decisions about the setting of national standards or training for those in policing. No scrutiny panel member is ever given access to operationally sensitive information.

The College decision to make a public statement concerning the scrutiny panel in March came after we received final feedback from members around individual privacy concerns and agreement to publicising the establishment of the group. It was always our intention that the creation of the panel be open and transparent.

One stood down...

Sophie Khan subsequently used her Police Action Centre blog at the Telegraph website late April 2015 to share her doubts, quoting the police attempt to ‘water down’ the terms of reference originally agreed and to reclassify the panel as an overseer and critical friend. She hoped that at the next meeting the membership of the panel would be extended to include more non-police voices, campaigners and activists who challenge undercover policing, but reckoned chances were small:

The decision on who will be invited lies with the College of Policing’s Executive Board as it is a panel set up by the College to assist them with their work on improving policy, procedure and training on undercover policing. But without the input of those who challenge and campaign against abuse of undercover policing the task of improving standards cannot be achieved.

Khan said she was going to put her questions to the College again:

Vested interests are being protected by the police-led Panel but what about the rights of those who will be subjected to undercover policing?

Do they not have a right to be heard and for their interest to be considered?

On 1 June 2015 Khan stood down from the Scrutiny Panel, quoting disappointment with the lack of progress, of transparency and the lack of trust, writing:

I am disappointed that the College of Policing has asked me and others to volunteer for a Panel that was never designed to progress the work on undercover policing.

The Panel was a good idea but without trust it is very difficult.

• Also see the Undercover Research blog posting: The Undercover Policing Scrutiny Panel - a whitewash operation exposed...

Panel members and biographies

The members of the Scrutiny Panel and their roles were listed in the first press release by the College of Policing;ref name="nusp.pr.1"/> the short biographic information has by compiled by the Undercover Research Group to show the myriad connections between them.

Members of the Scrutiny Panel and their background

	Name	Role	Short biography
1.	Alex Marshall (Chair)	College of Policing	In February 2013 he became Chief Executive Officer of the College of Policing, having been Chief Constable of Hampshire Police since 2008. As acting Deputy Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police (under Sara Thornton - see below), he was involved the investigation of animal rights extremists, which places him close to the National Coordinator Domestic Extremism and the NPOIU. Previous roles saw him as Head of the Metropolitan Police's Public Order Training Department and Senior Investigating Officer in its Anti Corruption Command. In 2000 he was a head of specialist operation policing for Cambridge Police, which would have seen him encounter animal rights campaigns against Huntingdon Life Sciences.
2.	Stephen Otter	HM Inspectorate of Constabulary	Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police 2007-2012, before joining the Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC). At the HMIC, he headed a 2014 report critical of the National Undercover Working Group, calling for a shake-up of it. He also authored a 2012 HMIC report critical of the Historical Enquiries Team in Northern Ireland for given preferential treatment to the security forces and for lack of independence. Appointed a commander at the Metropolitan Police in 2001, he subsequently served as Deputy Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset from 2002 to 2005.
3.	Sophie Khan	Police Action Centre	Stood down from the Scrutiny Panel on 1 June 2015 (see above; also see our blog posting on the The Undercover Policing Scrutiny Panel ) Police Action Centre. A solicitor who specialises in suing the police, inquests and the use of tasers. A founder of and Director of Legal and Policy for the Police Action Centre. She is also a trustee of the Stop and Search Legal Project and an executive member of the Haldane Society. She has worked for various solicitors, including Imran Khan & Partners.
4.	Sue Mountstevens	Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner	Said her role was to represent Police and Crime Commissioners on the Scrutiny Panel. She is notable for having told her Chief Constable Nick Gargan the name of a whistle-blower who had complained about sexual advances from him.
5.	Richard Martin	Metropolitan Police	At the MPS he is Commander for Intelligence and Covert Policing. A former chair of the National Undercover Working Group, having stepped down ahead of criticism of his leadership in the 2014 HMIC report, though he continued as a member. He had taken over as Chair of NUWG from DAC Pat Gallan in January 2013. His background is in organised crime for the Metropolitan Police, and January 2002 to December 2004 he was Head of Intelligence for the National Criminal Intelligence Service,. There he was 'Detective Chief Inspector responsible for conducting covert operations aimed at tackling serious and organized crime'. a post which will have brought him into contact with undercover police units such as the NPOIU.
6.	unnamed individual		'A clinician working to support undercover officers'.
7.	Jon Boutcher	Bedfordshire Police	Assistant Chief Constable for Bedfordshire (appointed May 2014). As ACC he is head of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Hertfordshire Joint Protective Services which includes the Counter Terrorism & Domestic Extremism (CTDE) team for those counties. In August 2014 he replaced Richard Martin as Chair of the National Undercover Working Group. He is the ACPO National Policing Lead for Undercover Policing. He also took over from his predecessor John Fletcher as leading on the College of Policing's new Code of Ethics. Previously he has been Silver Commander during the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezies, and lead the hunt for the 21/7 attempted suicide bombers. While an Assistant Chief Constable of Hertfordshire Police (2011 to 2013) he was ACPO lead on the Regulation of Investigative Powers Act, which provides the legislative framework for covert and undercover activities. He has also been the National Co-ordinator PURSUE, leading role within the Government's counter-terrorism Strategy, CONTEST.
8.	David Tucker	College of Policing	Head of the Crime and Criminal Justice Faculty for College of Policing. As a Detective Superintendent, he worked with ACPO TAM on community issues. and was head of National Community Tension Team (where he was associated with Rob Beckley and worked with Special Branch on a national level). He was Borough Commander (Chief Supt.) for Enfield 2009-2011 before moving to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children as Head of Policy (2011-2014). Previously Tucker had been a DCI at the Racial and Violent Crimes Task Force (ca. 2002-2003) where he worked with John Grieve, another officer with significant undercover policing connections. Note, this David Tucker should not be confused with Commander David Tucker who headed up the Met's Anti-Terrorism Branch (SO13).
9.	Gordon Ryan	College of Policing.	Principle Psychologist at the National Policing Improvement Agency 2007-2012, then at the College of Policing 2012-2014. Of the latter position he wrote that he "has sat on national policing governance boards for leadership selection, talent management, executive development and the organisational development of undercover policing.": Ryan currently runs his own business, Prism Work Psychology Ltd, as an independent, chartered occupational psychologist.
10.	Kerry Robinson	College of Policing
11.	Rob Beckley	College of Policing	Chief Operating Officer for the College of Policing. A former member of the Terrorism and Allied Matters committee where he was the lead on communities and counter-terrorism from 2002 to 2007, In particular, he 'set up the National Community Tensions Team and designed and led the Prevent strand of the national counter-terrorism strategy'. It is now known that in terms of policing, Prevent is a front for Special Branch work (i.e. the National Co-ordinator PREVENT is the same role as the former National Co-ordinator for Special Branch). As such he is likely to have had a close connection to the national units on domestic extremism and their associated undercover policing. In November 2012, Beckley was Deputy Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset police when he temporarily took over as Chief Constable from Colin Port, who had been told to reapply for his job by the newly appointed Police and Crime Commissioner, Sue Mountstevens. Nick Gargan was appointed to succeed Port as Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset, and in June 2013, Beckley moved to the CoP.
12.	Joe McGuigan	HMRC	He was the Assistant Director (Criminal) Investigation / Head of Investigation, Northern Ireland for HM Revenue & Customs in 2007, who are known to make use of undercover officers.
13.	David Carrigan	Independent Advisory Group	Chair of the College of Policing's Independent (Equality) Advisory Group since April 2010. He previously been chair of the National Police Improvement Agency's Equality Advisory Group Board member of Praxis, a charity; Senior Manager, Diversity & Cohesion at the Homes and Community Agency. Formerly he had been Policy Manager for the Housing Corporation, and prior to that worked for the Commission for Racial Equality 1999 to 2004.
14.	Dr Chris Nathan	Warwick Interdisciplinary Ethics Research Group	Describes his current work as focusing on 'ethical issues connecting counter-terrorism and the policing of transnational organised crime' and having an interest in the ethics of policing. He participates in the SURVEILLE research project, an EU FP7 funded programme which looks at the impacts of surveillance systems, and the 'Ethics and Security: Terrorism and Transnational Organised Crime' aspect of the Global Uncertainties project. Interestingly, he did his PhD at the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter (ca. 2010/11) at a time when he would have overlapped with spycop Bob Lambert who was doing a PhD in the same department 2008-2011, and who was associated with the European Muslim Research Centre, also in the Department of Politics, Exeter.
15.	Bob Satchwell	Society of Editors	Executive Director of the Society of Editors, Satchwell is a leading figure in the UK newspaper industry, holding a number of leading positions on representative bodies as well as being a former editor of the Cambridge Evening News. As part of this he has been helped draw up codes of practice. He has also been a member of the Defence Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee, the Cabinet Office Media Emergencies Forum, Ministry of Justice Information Users’ Group, the Home Office Community Cohesion Media Practitioner Group, the Queen’s Jubilee Communications Committee and the Home Office advisory committee for the review of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. Primarily he is the Executive Director of the Society of Editors, since its formation in 1999 (it had previously been the Guild of Editors, of which he was President from 1997). The main role of the Defence Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee is to issue D-Notices (or DA-Notices), a supposedly voluntary system 'prevent inadvertent public disclosure of information that would compromise UK military and intelligence operations and methods, or put at risk the safety of those involved in such operations, or lead to attacks that would damage the critical national infrastructure and/or endanger lives.' There are a number of Standing DA Notices, one of which deals with the protection of undercover officers and operations.
16.	Prof Ben Bowling	Dickson Poon School of Law	An academic with Kings College London. He has been at the School of Law since 1999, and his research 'examines practical, political and legal problems in policing and the connections between local and global police power'. He is a noted academic author on racism, crime, violence and justice. He is also active with the StopWatch coalition, which campaigns on 'excess and disproportionate stop and search, promote best practice and ensure fair, effective policing for all'.
17.	Peter Jukes	Media consultant	Jukes is a playwright, journalist and author on political issues. Author of a book on Rupert Murdoch and noted for his reporting on the phone hacking scandal which resulted in another book Beyond Contempt: Intrigue at Trial of the Century. It is not clear what his expertise on undercover policing is, other than that in 2000/2001 he wrote the fictional tv programme 'In Deep', which was about undercover police who spent years in that role. He said of his research for the script: "I was getting nowhere through the official channels, but I found two unofficial channels which, obviously, I can't reveal. They took me out to show me the procedures. They weren't operational undercover officers at the time, but they had been or else they were backing up other officers. They knew the whole routine." He is also of note for shadowing lobbyist Ian Greer as part of a research project during the cash-for-questions scandal.
18.	Tom Gash	Institute for Government	Director of Research at the IoG since January 2008; prior to that he had worked as senior crime policy adviser in the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit under Tony Blair, and continues to have a strong interest in crime policy. Noted for a 2008 report 'The New Bill: Modernising the police workforce', for the Institute for Public Policy Research, which argued that the police wage system, based on length of service, should be abolished in favour of performance and skills based salaries.
19.	Chris Green	Merseyside Police	In January 2015 Green was Det. Superintendent for Covert Operations, Merseyside police. He was Chief of Staff to Chief Constable Jon Murphy (see below) in 2012
20.	Mick Creedon	Chief Constable of Derbyshire Police	He is the National Lead Organised Crime for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), and the figurehead of Operation Herne - the Metropolitan Police's investigation into the activities of its own Special Branch undercover unit, the Special Demonstration Squad. From 2006 to 2007 he was the National Co-ordinator on Serious and Organised Crime for ACPO, and has remained as National Policing Lead for the National Crime Agency Working Group.
21.	John Dilworth	Crown Prosecution Services	He is the Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS North East Area (Newcastle-upon-Tyne), taking up that post in July 2014. Before this he was a high ranking manger in the North West Area as head of the Complex Casework Unit where he had experience of prosecuting cases involving undercover police surveillance.
22.	Dr Bethan Lofthouse	Centre for Criminology	No person of this name has been found. However, a spelling mistake may have been made, as there is a Bethan Loftus at the Manchester Centre for Regulation, Governance and Security, Department of Criminology, School of Law, University of Manchester, who has authored a number of academic papers on covert surveillance, RIPA and related subjects, and has been a member of the Oxford University Centre for Criminology. (Bethan Loftus is currently on maternity leave until March 2016 and has not responded to attempts by the Undercover Research Group to contact her).
23.	Shaun Sawyer	Devon and Cornwall Police	Chief Constable. Previously Sawyer had been head of Counter-Terrorism Command (SO13) in the Metropolitan Police in 2009, until he joined Devon and Cornwall Police as Deputy Chief Constable in April 2010. In January 2013 formally he succeeded Stephen Otter (above), as Chief Constable, though he had been acting Chief Constable since March 2012. He is notable for having re-investigated the Suzy Lampugh murder and as head of the Anti-Corruption Unit (CIB3) at Scotland Yard, where he ran covert investigations. From 'From 1996 to 1998 he served within Specialist Operations in the private office of Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations David Veness and as 'Detective Superintendent Security, Protection and Counter-Terrorism', which would make him closely connected with the Metropolitan Police Special Branch. Veness helped set up the National Public Order Intelligence Unit in 1999, and was in the line of command for the Special Demonstration Squad.

Connected police officers

As the list of police officers sitting on the National Undercover Scrutiny Panel shows, many of their careers overlapped at certain points in time. At first sight, there is nothing wrong with that: people specialise, they have specific qualities and climb the ladder. There are pros and cons on having so many insiders on a scrutiny panel, certainly when their presence is not in balance with outsiders. However, in our research and our efforts to map the staff responsible for the spying operations, we see the same names over and over again. What seems to emerge, is a network of police officers who had overview of undercover policing directed towards political protest and family justice campaigns.

College of Policing - Board of Directors

A number of senior police figures significant in the context of undercover policing against family justice campaigns and 'domestic extremists' have a seat on the board of the College of Policing. In particular Sara Thornton, Peter Fahy and Denis O'Connor.

Thornton and Fahy are vice chairs of ACPO TAM where they had oversight of the national domestic extremism units which ran undercovers such as Mark Kennedy, 'Lynn Watson' and 'Marco Jacobs'. From 2002 to 2004 Fahy was Deputy Chief Constable of Surrey at the time O'Connor was Chief Constable there.

O'Connor, as head of HMIC, was partly responsible for the first report (in 2011) into undercover policing after the exposure of Mark Kennedy. Long before that, in 1998, he and Thornton had crucial roles during the Macpherson Inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence. O'Connor was a key member of Commissioner Paul Condon's team as an Assistant Commissioner and Sara Thornton was a member of the Lawrence Review Team, set up by the Commissioner to draft the Metropolitan Police's responses to the damning findings of the Inquiry.

Another member of the Lawrence Review Team was Richard Walton, the officer who had the controversial meeting with the undercover officer N81, spying on the Lawrence family. When the Ellison Review published its findings on this secret meeting, Walton - at that moment head of Counter-Terrorism Command and as such responsible for the oversight of current 'domestic extremism including undercover operations - was removed from his position and his case referred to the Independent Police Complaint Commission for further investigation. Not much later the Home Secretary would announce an Independent Inquiry into the undercover police scandal.

Other police officers of interest

This list of police officers involved in oversight of undercover policing targeting political protest and family justice campaigns is far from complete. With more to come when our research evolves, we will mention just a few others with multiple links to people on the Scrutiny Panel or College of Policing.

• Nick Gargan is one of those connected figures already mentioned before. Appointed by Sue Mountstevens as Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Constabulary. Prior to that he was the Chief Executive of the National Police Improvement Agency, and before that an Assistant Chief Constable at Thames Valley Police under Sara Thornton. He, Alex Marshall, Rob Beckley, Sara Thornton, Peter Fahy, and another senior officer of interest, Lynne Owens, Chief Constable of Surrey, are all members of the Police Conference Steering Commitee for Cumberland Lodge.

• Bernard Hogan-Howe, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. First author of the first report of HMIC into undercover policing in 2011, where he served under the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Denis O'Connor. While Chief Constable of Merseyside, his assistant constables included Jon Murphy and Pat Gallan.

• Patricia Gallan, was an assistant chief constable for the National Crime Squad where she worked with Jon Murphy. With Murphy, moves to Merseyside Police where they are senior officers under Bernard Hogan-Howe, and serves under the latter at the Metropolitan Police as Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations. Hogan-Howe appointed her to set up Operation Soisson to investigate the allegations around the Special Demonstration Squad internally. Soisson would later be renamed Operation Herne. She was also Chair of the National Undercover Working Group until January 2013, stepping down because of her workload.

• Jon Murphy, Chief Constable of Merseyside, where he had served under Bernard Hogan-Howe. He was the Chief Constable Chris Green was staff officer to in 2012. It was Murphy who spoke out on behalf of ACPO as the Mark Kennedy undercover policing scandal broke in 2011.