{"id":44271,"date":"2014-06-26T16:15:06","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T16:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=917755dac2e6f3221fcba15a46d2b8b2"},"modified":"2014-06-26T16:15:06","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T16:15:06","slug":"news-story-home-secretary-announces-review-of-undercover-policing-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=44271","title":{"rendered":"News story: Home Secretary announces review of undercover policing cases"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Home Secretary Theresa May today announced details of a review of criminal convictions in cases involving undercover police officers.<\/p>\n<p>The review will look at whether convictions are safe in cases where undercover activity was not revealed to the prosecutor and therefore not considered by the court.<\/p>\n<p>It will be coordinated by Mark Ellison QC, who previously carried out the Stephen Lawrence Independent Review.<\/p>\n<p>The review will initially focus on the undercover police activity of the Metropolitan Police\u2019s Special Demonstration Squad.<\/p>\n<p>It will also look at the actions of the National Public Order Intelligence Unit which, while not part of the Met, worked to similar objectives.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"aims-of-the-review\">Aims of the review<\/h2>\n<p>The Home Secretary today said the review will work with the Home Office, Operation Herne, police forces, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Criminal Cases Review<br \/>\nCommission and other relevant agencies.<\/p>\n<p>It will:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Establish the policies around retaining and destroying documents at relevant organisations;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Identify how many police, prosecution and court case files still survive;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Find out what sort of undercover policing was carried out and the potential for this activity to have been relevant to a prosecution but kept secret;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Identify any convictions which might be unsafe due to unrevealed undercover police activity; and<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Ensure these cases are referred to the relevant authority to be evaluated and action taken;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"highest-standards\">Highest standards<\/h2>\n<p>Home Secretary Theresa May said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Undercover police operations are vital in the fight against crime.<\/p>\n<p>But we expect the highest standards of professionalism in all aspects of policing. If allegations of wrongdoing are made, it is important they are investigated thoroughly.<\/p>\n<p>Where Mark Ellison\u2019s review identifies a potential miscarriage of justice, the case may be referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission for consideration whether it should be referred to the appeal courts.<\/p>\n<p>I am grateful to the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and to Chief Constable Mick Creedon for the support they have offered to the review.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">I know the Metropolitan Police Service will cooperate fully with the review team.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Mr Ellison will aim to report the review\u2019s findings to the Attorney-General by the end of March 2015.<\/p>\n<p>A written ministerial statement was laid today by the Home Secretary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark Ellison QC to look at whether convictions are safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}