HN30

This article is part of the Undercover Research Portal at Powerbase - investigating corporate and police spying on activists

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Part of a series on undercover police officers
'HN30'
Alias:	unknown
Deployment:	'2004-2008'
Unit:	Special Demonstration Squad
Targets:	cover officer

HN30 is the cipher given to a former officer with the Special Demonstration Squad, serving as cover officer / desk officer from 2004 to the closure of the unit in 2008.

• For details of the N cipher system see N officers.

As an SDS officer

According to her 'impact statement' they joined the police in the early 1980s, and Special Branch a few years later, where she held a variety of rules. This included one operation which the 'officer believes gives rise to a risk of significant harm'. She also stated:

My role within the SDS was a back office role, predominantly as a cover officer, in the last years of the SDS. I was never deployed as an undercover officer.

I understood that all my service in Special Branch was confidential I have always maintained confidentiality after my career and have told nobody (other than my husband) any of the details of my time in Special Branch or the details of the work I did.

According to her risk assessment,

• prior to serving with the SDS she carried out 'work in units which targeted groups also targeted by the SDS';
• she declared a security concern from two police postings.
• approached to joined SDS by N36, a SDS manager [Detective Chief Inspector heading the unit]:

She initially declined for personal reasons.N30 informed the risk assessor that N36 had old her that she had been recommended. N30 believes the recommendation was either from N10 [ Bob Lambert ] or N90 [Mark Kerry (alias), infiltrated Socialist Workers Party / London Anti-Apartheid Group]. This convinced N30 to join the SDS as a desk/cover officer.

N30 had already completed an approved agent handling course and believed this would assist her in this new role. There was no psychometric training. N30 moved into the back office in a support role. This comprised administrative duties, general support and cover officer roles.

• she served as a cover / desk officer in the SDS from 2004 to 2008. She used a cover name in this role, but it was not the name of a dead child.

The risk assessment sets out the N-numbers of the officers performing management / back office roles during her time there, and noted:

the closure of the unit in 2008 by N314 and N275 was, in the opinion of N30, unfair and the cause of some friction with the remainder of the management team.

In the Undercover Policing Inquiry

• 11 May 2018, directed that anonymity applications for HN18 were to be filed by 31 May 2018 for both the MPS legal team and the Designated Lawyers team.

• 21 June 2018: the Chair of the Inquiry, John Mitting, indicated he was minded to restrict the real name of HN30, there being no cover name. The Explanatory Note from the Counsel to the Inquiry said an open application would be published in due course and a date set for any responses to the 'Minded To' note and added 'As this is not an UCO, any cover name will be considered at the document redaction stage'.

Mitting wrote in his 'minded to' of June 2018:

HN30 was a cover officer in the last years of existence of the Special Demonstration Squad. Performance of her duties as such did not and does not expose her to any risk of harm. For reasons particular to some of the undercover officers for whom she provided cover, a significant part of her evidence will have to be given in closed session, in any event. But for the matter referred to below, there would have been no reason why she should not give public evidence about the remainder of her duties in her own name.

During her police career, she participated in an operation which did give rise to a risk to her safety. To an extent that cannot be quantified now, that risk, although small, remains. It is not necessary to run it, to permit the Inquiry to fulfil its terms of reference. She will give evidence about performance of her Special Demonstration Squad duties, except that which has to be given in closed session, in public under her cypher. Nothing of value will be lost by her doing so. In those circumstances, the interference in her right to respect for an aspect of her private life -her physical integrity -which would be caused by publication of her real name would not be justified under Article8(2) of the European Convention.

A closed note also accompanied the above.

• 30 July 2018: an 'Explanatory Note' issued on this day said that in light of the application, open material will be published and a date to respond to the 'minded to' of June 2018 will be set. It also added:

Given this is not an [undercover officer], any cover name will be considered at the document redaction stage.

The position remained unchanged as of 13 September 2018.

• 2 October 2018: Open application (originally issued 30 May 2018), risk assessment and impact statement released. HN30 noted about their personal security:

However, no matter how small the risk is, it is a risk to my physical safety. I will have to take steps to increase my security awareness at a time when I am now retired and having thought I had moved on from that. [Gist of particular concern]. I thought I had moved on from this.

It is also therefore the impact on our day-to-day lives that concerns me. The non-restriction of my name and its association with SDS shines a light onto it and gives it much greater prominence than it had [since the operation].