Special Branches in forces in England and Wales, which gather intelligence about threats to national security, will also contribute information to the unit. MI5, the Security Service, will also contribute details of individuals they believe to be involved in terrorist activity or serious disorder. John Callaghan, overseas liaison director for Compassion in World Farming, the pressure group responsible for organising many of the demonstrations at Brightingsea in Essex and Shoreham in Sussex against the export of veal calves, condemned the extra monitoring of activists. This is going to far. I'm worried as a law abiding person that we are coming under this kind of scrutiny.
Peaceful demonstration is a part of a democratic society - it is part of our rights.
John Wadham, director of Liberty, the civil rights group. Argued that the unit would inevitably spend much of its time monitoring peaceful protest. Ecology and green pressure groups have multiplied in the past few years and have become an increasing headache to the police. In May, the organisation Reclaim the Streets caused serious disruption at the G8 summit in Birmingham and at other times has brought parts of London and Brighton to a standstill. The cost of covering the demonstrations against animal exports on the south Coast was more than 6m.