Appendix 7.8 — Profiles of Collective Cohorts and Participant Representation
This section explains who the respondents to this consultation analysis are. It profiles the collective cohorts whose submissions inform the report, so that readers can assess the basis on which each cohort's evidence rests. Some of these cohorts are pre-existing organisations or movements with their own identities and histories. Others are groups of Core Participants assembled for the purposes of the Inquiry, with no existence outside it. Where a cohort has described itself in its own words, that description carries the characterisation. Where it has not, the profile says so.
Legal representatives, research groups and NGOs
Submissions were also made by interested members of the public; legal representatives and research groups, including:
- Pete Weatherby KC (counsel for Core Participants)
- Hodge Jones & Allen (representing over 100 Core Participants)
- Birnberg Peirce
- Doughty Street Chambers
- Police Spies Out of Lives
- Netpol (Network for Police Monitoring)
- Undercover Research Group
- Public Interest Research Group Cymru
- The Non-Police Non-State Core Participants' Co-ordinated Group
Collective cohorts
The Ratcliffe Cohort
An Inquiry construct rather than a pre-existing organisation, formed to represent the individuals affected by the April 2009 pre-emptive arrests at the Iona School ahead of a planned action at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station. The 113 people arrested, and the 20 activists whose convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in R v Barkshire [2011] EWCA Crim 1885. The exposure of NPOIU officer Mark Kennedy was the catalyst for the collapse of the trials and the establishment of the Inquiry, which is why the cohort argues that ending the Inquiry before Tranche 4 would mean it never examines the unit that caused it to be set up. The cohort points out that it is the largest single cohort of Core Participants in the Inquiry.
Camp for Climate Action
Established in 2005 and functions both as a movement and as a formal cohort for the Inquiry. In its own words, it "aimed to raise public awareness of the climate crisis, encourage direct action against significant greenhouse gas point-sources, and live out sustainable, democratic alternatives," and it describes itself as a horizontal open structure rather than a conventional organisation. The cohort represents at least 27 Core Participants who compiled a 72-page joint witness statement covering the camps at Drax, Kingsnorth, Bishopsgate and Ratcliffe-on-Soar between 2006 and 2010. It argues that Tranche 4 is necessary to establish how NPOIU officers influenced protest strategies, facilitated arrests, shared intelligence with private energy companies, and fed information used in civil injunctions and blacklisting.
Earth First!
Active in the UK since the early 1990s, and in its own words has "never been a membership organisation, or a formal campaign group," but is "a grassroots network, a collective idea, and a convenient banner for autonomous local groups and individuals who share a commitment to non-violent direct action to defend the natural ecosystems of this planet." The submission was signed by 15 representative activists on behalf of a movement estimated at 500 to 1,000 people at its height. The network was targeted by at least eight identified undercover officers across SDS and NPOIU deployments, resulting in at least 10 Category H Core Participants, including nine women deceived into intimate relationships, and over 200 campaigners placed on construction industry blacklists.
Genetic Engineering Network (GEN)
Formed in early 1997 and formally designated as a group Core Participant by the Inquiry. It describes itself as having "served as an info-sharing and networking hub for a diverse coalition of environmental groups, organic farmers, local campaigns, and national organizations campaigning against the introduction of genetically modified organisms into the UK food chain." Its targeting spans both SDS and NPOIU deployments, which the cohort argues gives the Inquiry a direct comparison of political policing before and after the enactment of statutory oversight, and makes Tranche 4 essential to testing the validity of modern covert authorisations.
W.O.M.B.L.E.S.
Active in the early 2000s. It does not have core participant status although individuals in the group were designated as core participants. In its own words, it was "a loosely aligned, anti-capitalist, and anti-globalisation network" in which "there was no fixed 'membership' and no leadership," and whose participants were "readily distinguishable at protests by our tactical dress code: padded white overalls and helmets." The network was active across May Day protests, the DSEi arms fair and international summits. It was involved in establishing six community social centres, and was targeted by at least four identified undercover officers. It argues that Tranche 4 must be completed to examine how cross-unit tradecraft and provocateur tactics persisted under RIPA 2000.
Social Centre Networks
A group of individuals who were involved in the UK social centres network between approximately 1993 and 2014, who formed a joint witness group for the purpose of the Inquiry. In its own words, its spaces "hosted mutual aid projects, community kitchens, refugee language classes, free libraries, and meeting rooms for grassroots campaigns, local residents, trade unions, and environmental groups." The submission was signed by eight representative activists on behalf of 11 physical spaces targeted by undercover units, including the Sumac Centre in Nottingham, The Common Place in Leeds, rampART, LARC, the Oxford Action Resource Centre and the Cowley Club in Brighton. By treating physical social centres as 'gateway targets' to monitor entire communities, undercover operations executed a collective intrusion. Individual disclosure atomises this harm, masking the upper-level operational mandates that only a full statutory Inquiry across Tranches 4 and 5 can expose.
Reclaim the Streets
Has group Core Participant status, and describes itself as having been "a decentralized network with active groups and mobilizations extending far beyond London." In June 2025, 10 active organisers compiled a 275-page collective witness statement detailing infiltration by at least five identified undercover officers spanning both SDS and NPOIU deployments. The cohort argues that Tranche 4 is required to evaluate how RTS infiltration moved from SDS legacy methods into NPOIU statutory operations under RIPA 2000, and to examine operational overreach including the encouragement of violent escalation and the deception of women into intimate relationships.
Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp
Established 1985, opposed construction work for a new generation of nuclear weapons through local and national advocacy and non-violent direct action. From 2003–4, "Lynne Watson", an NPOIU undercover, infiltrated AWPC; she subsequently contacted women and remained on mailing lists. In September 2026 lawyers acting for Tranche 4 NSCPs wrote to the UCPI: "There are a significant number of groups and CPs who have waited patiently for disclosure… This includes: … Aldermaston CPs." Four women from AWPC are designated Core Participants in the Inquiry.