The spy firm has also been hired by public authorities. London’s City Hall faced criticism for signing a £12,000, year-long contract with Welund in April 2020, in which the firm was paid to provide intelligence about activists. Documents obtained by openDemocracy now show that the Greater London Authority (GLA) had previously hired the firm on another contract several months earlier, in 2019.
“Welund provides a curated daily dashboard with listings of planned demonstrations, events and protests,” an internal GLA email says. It adds that the firm has “consistently given warning of gatherings in London that are potentially disruptive, that [City Hall] did not have information on from other sources – including [the Metropolitan Police].”
The GLA was also implicated in the intelligence gathering of environmental protesters last summer. openDemocracy revealed how security officials linked to a GLA event “spied” on a group of environmental activists and blocked them from participating in a public debate.
Video footage obtained by openDemocracy shows how campaigners who wanted to ask questions at an event with London Mayor Sadiq Khan at the O2 arena were personally identified and turned away at the door.
In one clip, a plain-clothes security official at the entrance calls out the campaigners’ names as they approach, but refuses to tell them who he is working for. A second clip also shows an O2 security guard admitting he had received “intelligence” about the green campaigners.
One email exchange between GLA officials refers to “intelligence being filtered through on the night” about a planned protest, and adds: “O2’s security intelligence unit is extremely good and effective.”
Questions have been raised over how campaigners were identified, although there is no suggestion that Welund was involved.
While private companies step up their surveillance of campaigners, their activities are gradually being exposed using powerful legal requests.
Subject Access Requests (SARs), which allow individuals to obtain copies of any personal information that a UK business or organisation holds about them, are being increasingly used by environmental activists to understand how they are being monitored by corporations.
‘Discreet’ conversations
Welund is one of several intelligence firms to be hired by prominent public institutions. But it seems that one company in particular enjoys access to the upper levels of government.
Hakluyt, which is chaired by Conservative peer Paul Deighton, has been described as a “retirement home for ex-MI6 officers”. It made headlines last month for hiring the UK’s Brexit negotiator, Ollie Robbins.
In 2001, a few years after Hakluyt was founded, The Sunday Times accused the company of deploying an agent to spy on Greenpeace campaigners on behalf of oil companies. Hakluyt now says it has “no relationship with the spooky world” and that snooping on NGOs would be beyond the pale. Records show it has recently met ministers and advised a number of cultural institutions, but often without much transparency.
openDemocracy previously reported how Hakluyt met with then-minister for investment Gerry Grimstone in 2020 – during which no minutes were taken. But internal documents suggest that a government operation called Project DEFEND, which aimed to reduce the UK’s reliance on China for medical equipment, was discussed at the meeting.
An email sent to Grimstone from a Hakluyt employee in 2020, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, is titled: “A specific matter – confidential”. The employee wrote: “There is a specific and time-urgent matter that we think you may wish to engage with… In our judgement this would be worth your attention. If you agree, delighted to brief you and more importantly to discreetly connect you with [REDACTED].”
Grimstone replied: “We will set up a quick call.”
The email is heavily redacted, with the Department for International Trade claiming that a disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice commercial interests.
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