Soca rejects MPs' Operation Millipede plea

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has confirmed that it will not publish the list of 102 names compiled as part of Operation Millipede.

MPs gave Soca the deadline of Monday 9 September to publish a list of the 102 law firms, insurance companies and celebrities that hired rogue investigators.

If Soca fails to publish the list by then, parliament will publish it instead, MPs warned. The names of nine individuals or firms in the insurance sector were confirmed as being on the list.

Letter to parliament

In his letter to Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz MP (pictured), Soca director general Trevor Pearce laid out his decision not to publish the list.

“I am clear, as is the Soca chairman, that Soca’s responsibility in ensuring the integrity of an investigative process in the interests of justice has not changed, and that therefore the confidential material as presented to and agreed with you should remain confidential.”

Legal backing

In considering his response, Pearce sought the views of the Metropolitan Police Service, the Information Commissioner and Soca’s lawyers.

Vaz had stated that it was in the public interest for the list to be made public. “It is in the public interest for the information to be available at the appropriate time, not for this saga to drag on,” he said.

“I am still puzzled, and the committee is baffled, how you could have been sitting on this evidence for four years.”