Dear MP
Please retain the Lords amendments to the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) Bill when it returns to the Commons.
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Category: Police
Police Spies Bill at Report Stage in the House of Lords
I do not call these people covert human intelligence sources; they are police spies, and we have to be clear about that
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Domestic Abuse Bill
I congratulate everybody who has brought this bill to this point.
Today I wrote to Cressida Dick regarding unlawful sexual relations between undercover police officers and their targets
Dear Commissioner
During the Policing and Security APPG on 14th Dec 2020 I asked you what investigations were happening within the Met on the issue of the historic unlawful sexual relations between undercover police officers and their targets.
You told me that there were no ongoing investigations, yet the HoL Minister has made it clear in the debate on the CHIS Bill that such interactions are now and always have been unlawful. It seems remiss not to examine previous instructions to establish wrongdoing by senior officers.
Can you please therefore outline, in full, the Met’s position on whether these sexual relations were lawful. Could you also please explain when and why the Met decided to take no further action on the issue?
Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill Committee Stage Day 4
My amendment 75A would introduce a requirement for the Investigatory Powers Commissioner to refer potentially unlawful or improper conduct undertaken through a criminal conduct authorisation to the police for investigation.
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Police Spies – Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) – Bill Committee Stage Day 3
The Government say that amendments such as these are not necessary, because of the complex legal web of proportionality and the Human Rights Act. That argument might carry more weight if the Government were not constantly fighting a culture war against human rights lawyers. However, one does not need to be a human rights lawyer to understand that rape, murder and torture are never justified, so these restrictions have to be in the Bill.
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Police Spies – Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) – Bill
The big problem with this Bill is that the legal tests are too wishy-washy. They give the authorising bodies free rein. If we do not contract those processes in some way, there will be mistakes – there are bound to be. It will become very difficult to challenge even the most obviously wrong authorisations.
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Will state authorised spies keep the money they make from crimes?
The CHIS (spycops) Bill is in the Lords at the moment. The Minister couldn’t tell me if criminals who are authorised as police spies will be able to keep the proceeds of any criminal activity during the period when they are immune from prosecution. At the moment criminal proceeds are often confiscated by the state. Will they be taxed instead? I have written asking again…
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Covert Human Intelligence Sources: Immunity from crime for criminals and no recourse to justice for victims
It is obvious that the Bill hugely expands the state’s ability to authorise criminal conduct and grant legal immunity to criminals. Surely the Government understand this and can see that it is wrong to try to legislate like this.
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