CAMPAIGNERS have accused the Home Office of trying to “evade scrutiny” of undercover agents by failing to publicise a consultation over new operational guidelines for officers. 

Parliament passed the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Act — also known as the Spycops Bill — last year, allowing government agencies to authorise undercover operatives to commit crimes with immunity.

But charities Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) and JUSTICE say the Home Office’s consultation on its draft code of practice guidance “failed to proactively consult key organisations.”

In a letter to the ministry on Wednesday, the groups expressed “serious concerns” about the consultation process, and demanded it be reopened.

The consultation closed on February 6, just two months after it opened, with many groups being left unaware of the process, CWJ said. 

CWJ founding director Harriet Wistrich said: “I am horrified that the government has tried to evade scrutiny by failing to advertise its consultation on the CHIS code of practice. 

“Such consultation is meaningless if those who have experience of the ways that such powers can be abused are not invited to contribute.” 

They stress that victims of the spycops scandal, including dozens of women campaigners who were deceived into intimate sexual relationships by undercover officers over decades, should have been consulted. 

A spokesperson from Police Spies Out of Lives, a support group for women tricked into relationships with spycops who infiltrated protest groups, said: “Rather than being outlawed, the CHIS Act effectively enshrines in law the very wrongdoing and criminality [we have] been fighting against.

“We are angry but unsurprised, therefore, that the government has failed to invite women like us to contribute to this consultation.”

The Home Office was approached for comment.