Supplementary information from ACPO regarding
Channel to the CLG Committee Inquiry on Prevent (PVE 60A)
Thank you for your assistance in facilitating
my appearance before the above committee on Monday 11 January
2010. You will recall that during my evidence, the chair requested
further information concerning the Channel referral process which
is aimed at those considered vulnerable to being drawn into violent
extremism.
The figures that I quoted covered the period
1 April 2007 to 31 December 2008 and were
based on 11 Channel funded sites. A total of 228 individuals
had been referred to the scheme ranging in age from seven to 50 years,
the majority being within the 15 to 24 age bracket.
In total 93% of these were male.
As outlined in my evidence, the ACPO response
to preventing violent extremism looks to support all those considered
vulnerable regardless of their ideology or motivation. Whilst
it is acknowledged that the majority of those individuals supported
by Channel are inspired by AQ's ideology, the scheme also supports
a small but increasing number of individuals who are not. This
approach illustrates that the scheme focuses on an individual's
circumstances rather than collating data regarding their religion.
Channel is still an evolving process which continues
to develop and mature. Whilst the majority of early referrals
were initially recorded as coming from the police service, this
may have included referrals from either the public or other agencies.
An increasing number of referrals are being received from partners
as they become fully engaged within the process. Indeed, as Channel
matures it is the aspiration of ACPO that it becomes formally
embedded within the wider partnership safeguarding agenda.
You will notice that the published data is up
to December 2008. The 2009 data is in the process of analysis,
involving both ACPO and OSCT. It is hoped that we would be able
to offer a more sophisticated analysis of this data once the work
is completed over the next few weeks. Please make contact again
if the data requires further analysis in the future.
Sir Norman Bettison
18 January 2010
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