[1] The SPM's first publication, entitled, "Doubts about 'Novichoks'," questioned whether Russia's secret nerve agent programme – through which Novichok chemical weapons were developed – had ever existed.
[8] The SPM report accused Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, the former head of Britain's Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, of being an agent working on behalf of a British covert influence programme.
[17][18] In early 2018, The Times newspaper ran a series of articles critical of the SPM, in which it said the group intentionally spreads "disinformation" in support of the government of Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian Civil War and "conspiracy theories promoted by Russia".
[24] In 2019, The Huffington Post wrote that SPM "reported on the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, chemical attacks in Syria and a British organisation that counters Russian propaganda but its findings have been described by experts as “speculation”, “distortion” and “in the realm of conspiracy theorists”".
It quoted Kristyan Benedict, a crisis response manager for Amnesty International UK, who accused SPM of promoting conspiracy theories and denying war crimes.