Undercover Policing Bill introduced by Baroness Hamwee

On Friday 17 July from 10.00am, the Conduct of Undercover Policing and Surveillance Operatives Bill will have its second reading in the House of Lords.

The Private Members Bill was first introduced in the House by Baroness Hamwee on 2 June 2026. The Bill would make it an offence for undercover police and other undercover surveillance operatives to enter into intimate sexual relationships with their surveillance targets. Currently there is guidance that this is not acceptable, but it is not an absolute bar.

Speaking ahead of the second reading, Baroness Hamwee said:

We know from the current Undercover Policing Inquiry that dozens of women were deceived into forever relationships with boyfriends who used false names, including the names of dead children; in some cases children were born. The impacts on the women have been devastating.  

This wasn't a matter of a few bad apples - a Tradecraft Manual was produced by the police. We have an increasing understanding of violence against women and girls, of grooming, and of rape. We do not need the outcome of the inquiry to know that such conduct should be prohibited, and be made an offence. That is what my Bill would do.