Minister refuses to commit to Scottish Government probe on undercover policing

An SNP justice minister has refused to commit to launching a Scottish Government inquiry into undercover policing if the Home Secretary does not extend a UK probe on the issue to Scotland.     

Scotland’s Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs Annabelle Ewing faced repeated calls at Holyrood today to state her backing for a Scottish Government inquiry into the alleged activities of undercover police who targeted campaigners. 

Labour MSP Neil Findlay said the Scottish Government has a “duty not to side with the establishment” as he pressed the minister on the issue. 

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The Pitchford Inquiry was set up to look into police infiltration of political of political and social justice campaign groups in England and Wales.

Home Secretary Theresa May has come under pressure from the Scottish Government and the opposition parties at Holyrood to extend the inquiry to Scotland. 

However, Findlay, Tory MSP Douglas Ross and Scottish Green Party co-leader Patrick Harvie all called on Ewing to commit to a Scottish Government inquiry into the activities if May refuses to extend Pitchford.

Ewing, speaking during a Holyrood debate on the controversy, refused to commit to such a move and said the Scottish Government was focussing its efforts on seeking to get Pitchford extended to Scotland. 

She said: "The only way that Pitcofrd can consider the full picture is if it is allowed to follow the evidence regardless of geography.

“The Scottish Government is absolutely focussed on getting the inquiry extended to Scotland.”

Ewing repeated the same point several time as Findlay, Ross, Harvie and Scottish Labour justice spokeswoman Claire Baker called for her to agree in principle to a Scottish Government probe.  

The Pitchford inquiry was set up in July last year after a series of revelations about officers spying on left-wing, environmental and animal rights activists.

Several undercover officers had sexual relationships with the women they were spying on and one even fathered a child while concealing his true identity.

The Metropolitan Police in November made an “unreserved apology” and agreed to compensate women who were deceived into having relationships by officers - behaviour the force now admits was “unacceptable” and “a violation of the women’s human rights”.

However, the inquiry remit does not currently cover Scotland and has been formally set out "to inquire into and report on undercover police operations conducted by English and Welsh police forces in England and Wales since 1968".

Findlay, who forced a Holyrood debate on the issue, said: “Now all of this and more should come out in the Pitchford inquiry.

“But as it stands it won’t because Scotland is not included in the remit of inquiry – only England Wales.

“I urge you Cabinet Secretary to do the right thing, take that brave and right decision and initiate an independent public inquiry in Scotland should it not prove possible to extend Pitchford.”

Findlay added: “The Scottish Government has a duty not to side with the establishment and to ensure that the truth comes out.”