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Undercover police will be banned from having sex with targets they spy on.

MPs were told today the ban will be enforced under a new code of ethics following a series of scandals.

Eight women are suing Scotland Yard over claims they were duped into long-term affairs with undercover detectives.

Policing standards chief Alex Marshall told the Home Affairs Select Committee new training for officers authorising undercover work would “explicitly include” a rule that “sexual activity is not allowed”.

Five undercover officers are alleged to have had relationships with women in environmental campaign groups from the 1980s to 2010 lasting from seven months to nine years.

Addressing Mr Marshall, Labour MP David Winnick said: “We’ve had witnesses, female witnesses, that said undercover police agents had started sexual relationships with them - and in some cases children had been born - without any knowledge on the part of the women that they were entering an intimate relationship with police officers.

“And in their view - as one of them described it - it was a form of sexual deceit by the state itself.

“Do we take it from this proposed code that undercover police agents will not enter into such relationships?”

Mr Marshall replied: “They absolutely should not. They would be breaching the code if they did and in regard to that particular, the undercover world, since the College of Policing has started we have introduced a new training programme for the person who authorises that kind undercover work.

“It will be a requirement for the next group of people to become chief officers that they have to pass that course before they can become chief officers.

“We explicitly include in that course that sexual activity while undercover is not allowed.”

Breaches of the code of ethics will be dealt with through disciplinary procedures including management action and potential gross misconduct hearings.

It has been suggested that if undercover police are banned from entering sexual relationships with their subjects, officers will be exposed to tests by criminals who are attempting to discover their true identities.

Mr Marshall added: “There are both operational and legal difficulties for that individual working undercover, they have to be given clear guidance and the guidance should come from the authorising officer and the authorising officer should make it clear that sexual activity is not allowed while working undercover.”

Mr Winnick added: “Totally banned?”

To which, Mr Marshall replied: “Yes. That should be made clear by the authorising officer.”

A raft of allegations have been made since former Pc Mark Kennedy was unmasked in 2011 as an undercover officer who spied on environmental protesters as long-haired dropout Mark “Flash” Stone.

It is claimed five undercover officers engaged in infiltrating environmental campaign groups between the mid 1980s and 2010 had relationships with the women lasting from seven months to nine years.

A police investigation - Operation Herne - was set up in October 2011 to look into allegations made against the Met’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), including using dead children’s identities.