Gordon Irving

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Gordon Irving is the Director Group Security for Scottish Power PLC, which is now part of Iberdrola.[1] "Gordon Irving, ScottishPower’s Security Director, has close links and a very good working relationship with the police, having been in the force himself".[2]

Hiring Vericola to infiltrate environmental campaigns

An email leaked to The Guardian revealed that Gordon Irving was among three clients of Vericola, who sent employees into environmental campaign meetings. These were activist campaign meetings opposed to the environmental and social impacts of Scottish Power's projects.

One was Gordon Irving, security director of Scottish Power who joined the firm in 2001 after 30 years in Strathclyde Police where he was head of special branch. The other was Alan Somerville, then a director of coal producer Scottish Resources Group. Telling a colleague to forward information about activists in Scotland to the two companies, Todd wrote: "Send … to usual suspects."[3]

Responding to The Guardian after Scottish Power, E.ON and SRG were exposed for employing the private security company Vericola, who was allegedly infiltrating campaign groups,

E.ON said it had hired Vericola and another security firm, Global Open, on an "ad hoc" basis as its executives wanted to know when environmentalists were going to demonstrate at or invade its power stations and other premises, as they had done in the past. The E.ON spokesman said it asked Vericola only for publicly available information and if Todd (CEO of Vericola) and her colleagues had obtained private information, they had done so "under their own steam". SRG and Scottish Power did not comment.[4]

Shortly before The Guardian released the story, Indymedia published a full account of the Vericola exposure. Indymedia published the full company details, the process by which activists gathered evidence about the infiltration and photos of Rebecca Todd. The groups which had been targeted were included, as were the email addresses she and her agents used so that campaigning groups can assess whether they had been infiltrated, and to what level.[5]

Gordon Irving's career

Strathclyde Police Special Branch

Prior to joining Scottish Power in 2001 Gordon had spent 30 years in Strathclyde Police (Scotland) where he attained the rank of Chief Superintendent. He was Head of Special Branch and latterly a Police Commander in Glasgow where he had responsibility for 800 police officers and support staff.[1]In addition to his security role at Scottish power, Gordon is responsible for Business Continuity Management and Crisis Management across the whole group. Since 2001 Gordon has developed and implemented a strategy, framework and policy clearly embedding security and business continuity into each of the business areas within ScottishPower.[1]

Police counter-terrorism

Gordon has extensive experience in Counter Terrorism and during his time in Special Branch was involved and led many operations against the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and Loyalist Paramilitary Groups. Additionally, he has extensive experience with the Middle Eastern threat. His experience in Counter Terrorism included involvement in the United Kingdom Counter Terrorism (CT) programme when he would act as umpire at CT exercises throughout the United Kingdom. During his police experience, Gordon was also a senior investigating officer and headed several murder enquiries.[1]


Transferable skills and alliances: police and private security industry

Questions have been raised regarding the ethics of "former police officers cashing in on their surveillance skills for a host of companies that target protesters".[6]


  • Gordon Irving was a senior officer, and worked for special branch, for 30 years. Since 2001 he is director of security for Scottish Power, subject to criticism due to the social and environmental impacts of their projects.[7] Leaked documents exposed Gordon Irving emailing private spying company Vericola, gathering intelligence on the Climate Camp campaigns.[6] This example of proximity between the police and large corporations, formal or informal, may raise doubts about the the possibility of an entirely unbiased police force.


  • Another example of Special Branch providing transferable skills is Leeming, a director of Global Open, and former Special Branch officer. Until he left the police in 2001, he admits he regularly infiltrated undercover operatives into protest groups in his role as head of the Animal Rights National index. The animal rights movement subsequently became one of the main focusses of NETCU which polices "domestic extremism".[8] However, he insists Global Open does not infiltrate activist groups. He told The Guardian the company only advises firms on security. However, Global Open appears to have access to well-sourced intelligence.[9]


  • The Inkerman Group is another company monitoring protestors, which employs former Met commissioner Peter Imbert as a strategic adviser. A "restricted" report produced by the company three years ago warns of a growing threat of "eco-terrorism". Under a section on "recent acts of eco-terrorism", the document lists a number of peaceful campaign groups, including the anti-aviation collective Plane Stupid.[6] Arguably it has been this elusive threat of "eco-terrorism", sometimes tainted with the conflation between "illegal" and "violent" protest, that serves to justify the need for both the domestic extremism units and the private security firms.[10]


  • Russ Corn now works for Diligence, Global Business Intelligence firm, following a career in the UK Special Forces. Diligence was founded in 2000 by an international group of former intelligence officers.[11]


  • Peter Bleksley, director and co-owner of a business intelligence company, was a founder member of Scotland Yard's undercover unit in the 1980's.[12] Speaking as a former undercover police officer, when questioned about the Kennedy affair in an an interview for BBC2, confirms that there are currently more police officers embedded in the movement and that "there are also people from the private security sector working against climate campaigners".[13] A SpinWatch article comments on Bleksley's words that "the language itself is telling. Not ‘protestors’, but ‘campaigners’. Targeted not for taking illegal direct action, but simply for holding a view. And not simply monitoring: the ‘against’ testifies to an agenda in policing".[14]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Human Factors In Security An Inaugural Conference accessed 02/02/11
  2. ↑ Scottish Power Website Corporate Responsibility, accessed 02/01/11
  3. ↑ Paul Lewis and Rob Evans Green groups targeted polluters as corporate agents hid in their ranksThe Guardian, 14/02/11, accessed 14/02/11
  4. ↑ Rob Evans and Paul Lewis Revealed: how energy firms spy on environmental activists The Guardian, 14/02/11, accessed 22/02/11
  5. ↑ Indymedia UK company, Vericola Ltd, uncovered after incompetence 14/02/11, accessed 25/02/11
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Paul Lewis and Rob Evans Green groups targeted polluters as corporate agents hid in their ranks The Guardian, 14/02/11, accessed 14/02/11
  7. ↑ Terry Macalister BP joins renewable power campaign group, The Guardian, 27/12/06, accessed 22/02/11
  8. ↑ LEADING ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST SENTENCED, ACPO press release, 25 February 2005.
  9. ↑ Rob Evans, Amelia Hill, Paul Lewis and Patrick Kingsley Mark Kennedy: secret policeman's sideline as corporate spy The Guardian, 13/01/11, accessed 17/ 01/11
  10. ↑ Matilda Gifford Why spy on peaceful protesters? The Guardian, 26/04/09, accessed 17/01/11
  11. ↑ Diligence Website, New Leadership and Expanded Office Will Help Meet Rising Demand for Risk Management Services, 03/01/06, accessed 23/02/11
  12. ↑ Contributor's profile Peter Bleksley, The Guardian, accessed 22/02/11
  13. ↑ Kirsty Wark, NewsNight "BBC2" 10/01/11, accessed 11/01/11
  14. ↑ Tilly Gifford Unmasking the environmental infiltrators, SpinWatch, 19/01/11, accessed 22/02/11
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