Chippenham MP Duncan Hames has slammed behavour by the Metropolitan Police over his two-year fight to find out about the identities of dead teenagers stolen by undercover police officers.

The Metropolitan Police revealed that dead children aged “0, 1, 4 to 14, 16 and 17” had their identities stolen by the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) in a practice the force conceded was “morally repugnant”.

Mr Hames obtained the information through a Freedom of Information Act request which he originally submitted in February 2013.

He said families with children who died aged two, three and 15 during the time of the practice could now be reassured their identities had not been stolen.

But he said: “The way the Met have conducted themselves is a travesty to the way the FOI is meant to work, only once we had got a date in court did they finally give way.

“A small proportion of families will be able to use this information to be reassured that their child’s identity was not stolen, which does raise the question whether there is any other way that the police could help reassure more families.”

Mr Hames started pursuing this matter on behalf of a constituent who had lost his daughter when she was 15.

"When he first heard about this practice he was galled at the thought that someone could be using her stolen identity, leading the life that she should have led, and he is not alone," said the MP.

He conceeded: “I was very pleased that the Met, at the 11th hour, gave way and released the information we asked for, especially in this case of my constituent on whose behalf I raised the question.

"It’s not every day I agree to go to court on behalf of a constituent but I am glad our willingness to do that has got the results they were seeking.”

The practice was widespread according to an investigation by Derbyshire Chief Constable Mick Creedon who found that out of 106 covert names the squad used between 1968 and 2008, 42 can be confirmed or be treated as highly likely to have come from dead children.