A police watchdog has launched an investigation into allegations that a Scotland Yard intelligence unit shredded a large number of files after a public inquiry into undercover policing was set up by Theresa May when she was home secretary.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) announced on Wednesday that it was investigating claims that the documents had been destroyed despite a specific instruction that files should be preserved.

The documents, held by the national domestic extremism and disorder intelligence unit (NDEDIU), which tracks political activists, are alleged to have been shredded over a number of days in May 2014.

May had ordered the public inquiry two months earlier. The inquiry, led by Lord Justice Pitchford, follows a string of revelations about the conduct of undercover officers who were deployed to spy on political groups.

The Pitchford public inquiry is examining the undercover infiltration of hundreds of political groups since 1968, including how the police spies formed long-term relationships with women, gathered information about the grieving relatives of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, and stole the identities of dead children.

Sarah Green, deputy chair of the IPCC, said: “While the evidence indicates that a large number of documents were shredded over a period of days in May 2014, the difficult task ahead for our investigators is to determine what the documentation was, why it was destroyed, whether electronic copies were kept and who may have ordered its destruction. We are also examining what action the Metropolitan police took once it was alerted, by a member of staff, to the allegations in December 2014.”

She added that the IPCC appreciated that people who were spied on by the police and were taking part in the inquiry would have “serious concern” about the allegations.

The Met said it had referred the allegations about the alleged shredding to the IPCC in May 2016. “It would be inappropriate for the Metropolitan police service to provide further information whilst the independent investigation is ongoing. We remain committed to providing our fullest possible co-operation to the inquiry.”



In a statement, the inquiry said that after it heard about the allegations it ensured that the Met had preserved backup copies of the information kept on the database concerned.



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On Wednesday the IPCC also announced that it was examining claims that the same intelligence unit had improperly destroyed files it held on the Green party peer, Jenny Jones.

The claims had been made by a whistleblower who was employed at the Met police intelligence unit. The whistleblower, David Williams, a sergeant, alleged that the unit destroyed the files to prevent Lady Jones from establishing the scale of the police monitoring of her political movements.

For more than 10 years, Jones, in her role as a London councillor, was a member of the official committee that scrutinised the Met. Details of what Williams called a “highly irregular” cover-up were revealed by the Guardian in January 2016.

In its statement the IPCC said that a “complaint by Baroness Jenny Jones, that records held by the Metropolitan police relating to her were destroyed or deleted in or about June 2014, was referred to the IPCC on 27 January. That complaint is now also subject to independent investigation”.

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Jones said: “I am delighted that the IPCC is taking this seriously. I applaud the brave whistleblower who had come forward to tell me that this had happened. Without his courage we would never had known.”

Williams had sent her a four-page letter in which he alleged that, in June 2014, he had witnessed three officers shredding more than 30 reports relating to her, and two other officers deleting records from a police database. Williams, who told her that he had not become a police officer to monitor politicians, had reported his concerns to an internal Met department, which later concluded that the officers had not acted wrongly.

The Met maintains that there was evidence that documents had been destroyed on the day, as claimed by Williams. However, according to the Met, it could not determine if these documents related to Jones.

The Met has said that the unit for which Williams worked had been told to regularly destroy records that were out-of-date or irrelevant. This instruction was issued after the unit had been criticised for holding too much information. The documents had been destroyed as part of this legitimate effort to improve record keeping, the Met has said.

Why did the police have files on my ‘domestic extremism’ in the first place? | Jenny Jones Read more

Williams had been working for a unit that, according to police, needed to monitor political campaigners to catch those who might use criminal methods to promote their cause.

Campaigners have complained however that the police have been compiling files on protesters who had no criminal history and who used purely democratic means to further their aims.



Last year it was revealed that the unit had been compiling files on senior members of the Green party, including its only MP, Caroline Lucas.

