The judge-led public inquiry into undercover policing will be established under the Inquiries Act 2005.

As I said to the House when I repeated the Home Secretary’s statement on 6 March 2014 (Official Report, cols. 1518-26), there is significant further work that needs to take place before the public inquiry can begin its work. That further work will inform the scope of the inquiry and its terms of reference.

Operation Herne, which is investigating this issue, is led by Chief Constable Mick Creedon. It is for Chief Constable Creedon to judge whether there is sufficient evidence to make referrals to the Director of Public Prosecutions. An interim report on the use of deceased children's identities

was published by Operation Herne on 16 July 2013. This indicated that independent legal advice had been sought through the Crown Prosecution Service about whether an offence had been committed. That advice concluded that “it is unlikely that the dishonesty necessary to make out an offence would be present”.

The Operation Herne report recognised the strong case in favour of informing families, but there is also a strong case for protecting volunteer undercover officers who have done nothing wrong other than following established instructions on how to establish their undercover identity. The decision has been taken by the police not to inform individual families and the Government do not plan to ask for that decision to be changed.

Senior police officers have made clear, including to the Home Affairs Select Committee, that this is not a practice that currently takes place in forces and, furthermore, that it would not be permitted under the regulatory system that is now in place. There is no evidence that authority for such practices was ever sought from the Home Office.

Chief Constable Mick Creedon, who leads Operation Herne, published an interim report on the use of deceased children's identities on 16 July 2013. In it he indicated that his team has not yet researched covert policing tactics in forces beyond the Metropolitan Police. However, as the routine use of undercover policing developed in parallel to the work of the Metropolitan Police Service's Special Demonstration Squad, Mr Creedon has also suggested that it is highly possible that the use of details of deceased children was more widely practised.

Senior police officers have made clear, including to the Home Affairs Select Committee, that this is not a practice that currently takes place in forces and, furthermore, that it would not be permitted under the regulatory system that is now in place. There is no evidence that authority for such practices was ever sought from the Home Office.

Chief Constable Mick Creedon, who leads Operation Herne, published an interim report on the use of deceased children's identities on 16 July 2013. In it he indicated that his team has not yet researched covert policing tactics in forces beyond the Metropolitan Police. However, as the routine use of undercover policing developed in parallel to the work of the Metropolitan Police Service's Special Demonstration Squad, Mr Creedon has also suggested that it is highly possible that the use of details of deceased children was more widely practised.

Senior police officers have made clear, including to the Home Affairs Select Committee, that this is not a practice that currently takes place in forces and, furthermore, that it would not be permitted under the regulatory system that is now in place. There is no evidence that authority for such practices was ever sought from the Home Office.

Chief Constable Mick Creedon, who leads Operation Herne, published an interim report on the use of deceased children's identities on 16 July 2013. In it he indicated that his team has not yet researched covert policing tactics in forces beyond the Metropolitan Police. However, as the routine use of undercover policing developed in parallel to the work of the Metropolitan Police Service's Special Demonstration Squad, Mr Creedon has also suggested that it is highly possible that the use of details of deceased children was more widely practised.

Her Majesty's Passport Office has no record of having been involved in the creation of false identities for police officers from the identities of dead children.