The Undercover Policing Inquiry or Pitchford Inquiry is an independent public inquiry into undercover policing in England and Wales. It was announced by Theresa May, the United Kingdom Home Secretary on 12 March 2015, and is due to report back in 2023. It is chaired by Sir John Mitting, following the resignation due to ill-health of Lord Justice Pitchford. In March 2018 campaigners and their legal team walked out of a hearing of the inquiry, calling for Mitting to step down. Background Theresa May commissioned the Undercover Policing Inquiry in 2015, in response to a string of allegations about the activities of undercover units, including the disclosure that police had spied on campaigners fighting for justice for Stephen Lawrence. In 2012 Theresa May had commissioned Mark Ellison QC to review allegations of corruption relating to the initial police investigation of the 1993 murder of Lawrence. The Ellison Report, presented to Parliament on 6 March 2014, found a number of serious concerns relating to undercover policing practices. Ellison also highlighted a possible link between an allegedly corrupt police officer involved in the Lawrence campaign, and the 1987 murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan. Remit The inquiry is investigating the undercover infiltration of more than 1,000 political groups since 1968. It primarily examines the conduct of two now disbanded units: the Metropolitan Police's Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). It is looking at allegations that undercover officers infiltrated and disrupted social justice groups and movements, deceived women into intimate relationships, stole the names of dead children to create fake identities, and concealed evidence in court cases. Evidence As of April 2018 the inquiry has confirmed that undercover police had infiltrated the following groups and movements: Anarchist groups, Animal Liberation Front, Anti-Apartheid Movement, Anti-Fascist Action, Big Flame, Black Power movement, Brixton Hunt Saboteurs, Anglia Ruskin Churchill Society (Young Conservatives), Colin Roach Centre, Dambusters Mobilising Committee, Dissent!, Earth First!, Essex Hunt Saboteurs, Friends of Freedom Press Ltd, Globalise Resistance, Independent Labour Party, Independent Working Class Association, International Marxist Group, International Socialists, Irish National Liberation Solidarity Front, London Animal Action, London Animal Rights Coalition, London Boots Action Group, London Greenpeace, Militant, No Platform, Antifa, Operation Omega, Reclaim the Streets, Red Action, Republican Forum, Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation, Socialist Party (England and Wales), Socialist Workers Party, South London Animal Movement (SLAM), Tri-Continental, Troops Out Movement, Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, West London