1 Introduction
1. Prevent is a cross-cutting policy led across
Government by the Office of Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT)
in the Home Office and delivered by a number of departments and
agencies which all have specific policy interests in the Prevent
strategy. Its aim is to stop radicalisation, reduce support for
terrorism and violent extremism and discourage people from becoming
terrorists.[1] CLG
contributes to the delivery of all elements of the strategy and
leads the community-based response to violent extremism.[2]
2. Since 2000, the UK has enacted five main pieces
of legislation to deal with terrorism.[3]
However, the Government also recognised that in the years following
the events of 11 September 2001, legislation and security measures
were not sufficient to deal with all of the consequential issues
raised by terrorism. These issues included:
- Finding practical ways to foil
an attack rather than securing a conviction after the event when
fatalities have occurred[4]
- Understanding why people become involved in terrorism[5]
- Working out how the UK can best protect its infrastructure[6]
- Understanding how the Government can assist the
general public and the business community in being more resilient
to the threat of terrorism[7].
3. Prevent is aimed at the group of people
who are vulnerable to persuasion to provide tacit or silent support
to terrorists in certain circumstances and possibly "reject
and undermine our shared values and jeopardise community cohesion".[8]
However, they are not necessarily breaking the law and to this
extent, legislation can be ineffective.
4. In 2003, the government
launched CONTEST as its new multidimensional counter-terrorism
strategy. It contained four priorities: Pursue, Prevent, Protect
and Prepare. In March 2009 the Government launched a revised
strategy, popularly known as 'CONTEST II' "to take account
of the evolution of the threat and of our understanding of the
factors which are driving it".[9]
In particular, the Government acknowledged that in 2003, Prevent
was the least developed strand of CONTEST as the previous focus
had been on protecting the public from the "immediate threat
to life [
] rather than understand[ing] the factors driving
radicalisation".[10]
Under CONTEST II, Prevent is at the forefront of counter-terrorism
work. The aim of CONTEST II is "to reduce the risk to the
UK and its interests overseas from international terrorism, so
that people can go about their lives freely and with confidence".[11]
5. The current objectives of Prevent are:
- To challenge the ideology behind
violent extremism and support mainstream voices
- To disrupt those who promote violent extremism
and support people living in the communities where they may operate
- To support individuals who are vulnerable to
recruitment, or have already been recruited by violent extremists
- To increase the resilience of communities to
violent extremism
- To address grievances which ideologues are exploiting
- To develop supporting intelligence, analysis
and information
- To improve strategic communications.[12]
6. In the UK, there has been an increasing emphasis
on involving people and grassroots organisations in political
decisions and in managing local environments. This is reflected
within Government policy and governance. Formal responsibilities
for policy implementation and service delivery are being shared
across statutory agencies and community groups in the form of
partnership work. In line with this shift of emphasis, in 2006
the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) took
responsibility for the Preventing Extremism campaign (re-named
Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) in 2007), under the
Prevent strand of CONTEST. New guidance on Prevent
(including revisions) was released in 2007,[13]
2008[14] and 2009.[15]
Prior to this and following the terror attacks in July 2005, the
Preventing Extremism Together workgroups were convened by the
Home Office, with significant community engagement. The PET workgroups
published their report in October 2005[16]
and when CLG was created following cabinet re-shuffle in 2006,
this agenda was passed from the Home Office to the Department.
7. CLG's contribution
to Prevent is measured against Public Service Agreement
(PSA) 26: "Reduce the risk to the UK and its interests overseas
from international terrorism". At a local authority level,
one of the key performance indicators for Prevent is National
Indicator 35"Building Communities Resilient to Violent
Extremism", which emphasises:
- Understanding of, and engagement
with, Muslim communities
- Knowledge and understanding of the drivers and
causes of violent extremism and the Prevent objectives
- Development of a risk-based preventing violent
extremism action plan, in support of delivery of the Prevent
objectives
- Effective oversight, delivery and evaluation
of projects and actions
8. Our inquiry set out to consider the effectiveness
of the Prevent programme to date and its likely effectiveness
in the future. Our terms of reference covered a wide range of
issues including the Government's current analysis of the factors
which lead people to become involved in violent extremism, the
appropriateness and effectiveness of community engagement within
the programme, and specific issues for local authorities in delivering
Prevent locally. We also looked at the interface between
Prevent and other related policy frameworks such as cohesion
and integration.
9. Our call for evidence received a good response,
with over seventy memoranda submitted. In addition to written
evidence, we held five oral evidence sessions and also paid a
visit to Birmingham to meet local front-line Prevent workers,
academics and religious leaders. Our thanks go to all our witnesses
and particularly to Yusuf Desai of Forward Thinking who organised
a most worthwhile visit to the Amana Centre in Birmingham.
10. Finally, we would like to thank our two specialist
advisers, Alveena Malik and Dilwar Hussain, whose insights throughout
our inquiry have been invaluable.[17]
1 HM Government, Pursue, Prevent, Protect, Prepare:
The United Kingdom's Strategy for Countering International Terrorism,
March 2009, p 14. Back
2
Ibid., p 15. Back
3
The Terrorism Act 2000; Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act
2001; Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005; The Terrorism Act 2006;
The Counter-Terrorism Act 2008. Back
4
HM Government, Pursue, Prevent, Protect, Prepare: The United
Kingdom's Strategy for Countering International Terrorism,
March 2009, p 62. Back
5
Ibid., p 82. Back
6
Ibid., p 104. Back
7
Ibid., p 118. Back
8
HM Government, Pursue, Prevent, Protect, Prepare: The United
Kingdom's Strategy for Countering International Terrorism,
March 2009, p 15. Back
9
Ibid., p 8. Back
10
HM Government, Pursue, Prevent, Protect, Prepare: The United
Kingdom's Strategy for Countering International Terrorism,
March 2009, p 82 Back
11
Ibid., p 8. Back
12
Ibid., p 14. Back
13
Communities and Local Government, Preventing Violent Extremism:
Winning Hearts and Minds, April 2007. Back
14
Communities and Local Government, Preventing Violent Extremism,
Next Steps for Communities, July 2008. Back
15
Communities and Local Government, Delivering the Prevent Strategy:
An updated guide for Local Partners, August 2009. Back
16
Preventing Extremism Together, Working Group Report, August-October
2005, available at www.communities.gov.uk. Back
17
Both specialist advisers were appointed on 20 July 2009. Alveena
Malik declared the following interests: a freelance consultant
working on cohesion, equality and human rights issues; contracted
to work 2 days a week with the Institute for Community Cohesion
(iCoCo) as Principal Associate with lead responsibility for Education
and Cohesion; contracted to work one day a week for the Young
Foundation as adviser on the Maslaha Project (start up Muslim
web based organisation) providing strategic advice on business
planning, fundraising and stakeholder engagement; and from time
to time undertakes short pieces of work for other organisations
and might be undertaking research work on Visual Arts and Cohesion
commissioned by the Arts Council in the autumn. On 18 January
2010, Ms Malik submitted a further declaration of interests: a
Ministerial appointment to the CLG Faith expert panel, chaired
by the Secretary of State John Denham. The Faith panel may cover
issues related to the Prevent agenda and in the event that this
occurs Ms Malik has agreed to withdraw from the discussion to
avoid any conflict of interest with the role of Special Advisor
to the Prevent Inquiry.
Dilwar Hussain
declared the following interests: Head of Policy Research Centre;
Advisor to Weidenfeld Institute for Strategic Dialogue on their
Islam in Europe programme of research; advising on a short-term
Prevent related research project run by the Royal United Services
Institute; on a review panel for HM Prison Service looking at
literature in prisons; occasionally undertakes research and training
projects related to identity, cohesion and preventing extremism
for a variety of sources (including the Association of Local Government,
the Communities and Local Government Department of HMG, the Change
Institute, St Philips Centre in Leicester and the Apex Partnership).
Back
|