A nominal is an identifying code and number for an officer. All officers, whether managers, undercovers or office staff, in the Special Demonstration Squad and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit have been given nominals in the Undercover Policing Inquiry.
The practice of assigning them N numbers emerged in Operation Herne and the Stephen Lawrence Independent Review, when all officers being granted anonymity were referred to simply as Nxxx. For instance, HN81 'Dave Hagan', the undercover who targeted the Stephen Lawrence family has often been better known as just N81.
Later, following the establishment of Operation Elter to manage the NPOIU material, the convention arose of identifying SDS officers as HNxxx, where H indicated Operation Herne, and NPOIU related officers as ENxxx, with E standing for Elter.
For Tranche 5, the Inquiry has adopted the nominal system RFNxxx in relation to undercover police operations not connected to the Special Demonstration Squad or National Public Order Intelligence Unit.
The Inquiry has also occasionally used PNxxxx / TNxxxx for some senior officers, where P stands for ‘provisional’ and T for 'temporary'. Several have since been revealed and their full names provided.
List of TN and PN numbers who have appear in UCPI disclosure
- TN0030
- TN0032
- TN0033
- TN0034
- TN0035
- TN0036
- TN0037
- TN0038
- TN0039
- TN0041/HN951 Matthew Dwyer
- TN0044
- TN0047/HN1839 John David Palmer-Hall
- PN1748/HN4229 Riby Wilson