4 Capacity Building
61. In her foreword to the July 2011 Contest Strategy,
the Home Secretary noted that
Most of the terrorist plots against this country
continue to have very significant overseas connections. We must
continue to work closely with other countries and multilateral
organisations to tackle the threats we face at their source.[59]
UK capacity building
62. While the police, security and intelligence agencies
work tirelessly to protect British citizens we believe that building
stability overseas is also crucial to the success of the Government's
counter-terrorism strategy. As the CONTEST strategy makes clear:
Terrorist groups gravitate to and emerge from
fragile and failed states...the absence of the effective rule
of law not only encourages terrorism, but makes counter-terrorism
operations significantly harder. In some cases, terrorists who
we know and who are planning operations in this country have been
able to do so without hindrance for many years. Building the capacity
of failed and fragile states is therefore vital to our national
security.[60]
63. This work is delivered through political and
diplomatic engagement, and through specific counter-terrorism
projects in priority countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen,
Somalia and Nigeria. Syria, in recent years, has also become a
priority.
64. The Government also uses its international development
programme to gain maximum benefit in stabilising areas which in
turn restricts the growth of extremism. Governments are not the
sole providers of capacity building projects-NGOs play an important
role in countering terrorism. The UN provided an example of their
work to develop effective and proportionate strategies to prevent
terrorism financing through NGOs. The project, launched in London
in 2011 with the support of the Government of the United Kingdom,
was supported by Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland,
the United Kingdom and the United States and brought together
more than 60 countries and 80 NGOs to examine the risks. Experts
from the United Kingdom, including the Charity Commission of England
and Wales, played a leading role in the organisation and implementation
of this initiative, which the UN maintain provided invaluable
guidance and policy advice.[61]
65. In their written evidence to us the Home Office
said that the Government had introduced a more strategic approach
to developing the capacity of international partners to investigate
and prosecute terrorists by building justice and human rights
partnerships. The work was being carried out with countries where
there is both a threat to UK security and weaknesses in the law
enforcement, human rights and criminal justice architecture.
66. Specific counter-terrorist projects are supported
by a £30m FCO CT Programme. These projects are delivered
by and with a range of Departments and agencies, including the
Ministry of Defence, Department for Transport, Crown Prosecution
Service and the Metropolitan Police Service.[62]
These projects aim to:
· Build the CT capacity of overseas security
services to improve compliance with the law and human rights and
to make them more effective;
· Improve the ability of local investigators
to build cases based on evidence rather than confession. The police
CT network plays a critical role in this regard: support is delivered
through the network of Counter-Terrorism and Extremism Liaison
Officers (CTELOs) posted overseas who work with organisations
in their host countries and regions;
· Ensure prosecutors and judges are capable
of processing terrorism cases through the court systems, effectively,
fairly and in line with the rule of law;
· Improve and where appropriate monitor
conditions in detention facilities so that convicted terrorists
can be held securely and their treatment meets with international
standards.[63]
67. The Government emphasised that capacity building
work overseas were carried out within a framework built on accountability
and respect for human rights and that
It is vital that our CT work supports justice
and the rule of law as well as meeting our security objectives.
Although work on the partnerships is in its early stages, we have
already delivered progress in a range of areas.[64]
68. The police provide an important role in capacity
building overseas. In her written evidence to us, Cressida Dick,
the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police explained
how the police counter-terrorism network played a critical role
in supporting countries overseas to investigate and prosecute
terrorists who may threaten the UK and our interests. She told
us that the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism and Extremism
Liaison Officers (CTELOs) are strategically located around the
world and work closely with police counterparts in their host
countries and regions. They have a wide range of roles and responsibilities
including:
· providing assistance in efficiently progressing
CT-related enquiries emanating from, and directed into, the UK
(this includes working within Europol);
· acting as the forward deployment for UK
CT police in respect of terrorist incidents where UK nationals
or interests are involved to assist the host country in conducting
their investigation;
· mentoring and building effective and human-rights-compliant
CT capability within foreign police agencies in support of the
FCO Justice and Human Rights Partnership (JHRP) Programme.[65]
69. The network of Counter Terrorism and Extremism
Liaison Officers (CTELOs) has recently increased its geographical
coverage in response to the expanding and more diversified threat
overseas. According to the Metropolitan Police, it is now more
effectively placed to deliver the policing component of the Government's
upstream counter-terrorism operations so that it is possible to
tackle the threat at its source and better establish where there
is a direct threat to the UK or its interests.[66]
70. The Metropolitan Police highlighted the relationship
between CTELOs and NCA colleagues where the two organisations
have common posts. Furthermore the Metropolitan Police described
how the CT Network is
Actively engaged with the NCA in examining potential
areas of coordination and collaboration and some of these overlaps
may well be identified in capacity building activity, specifically
where we are interacting with the same organizations overseas.[67]
COUNTER TERRORISM AND EXTREMISM
LIAISON OFFICERS (CTELOS) NETWORK IN ACTION
71. The Metropolitan Police gave two recent examples
of their CTELOs supporting national law enforcement in investigating
terrorist incidents abroad.
Algeria
The Counter Terrorist Command in the MPS led
the UK response following the terrorist attack on a gas plant
processing facility in In Amenas, Algeria in January. This is
an ongoing operation, with extensive support being provided by
us to the Foreign Office and the HM Coroner and there continues
to be significant family liaison work and engagement with a range
of international partners. The deployed team were able to manage
the recovery, identification and repatriation of any UK deceased,
conduct interviews and evidence gathering from survivors.
Led by the Forensic Management Team, the UK set
a strategy for the international identification and repatriation
of deceased and their remains, managing all aspects of the mortuary
process. With the assistance of international partners from Norway
and Japan, the team examined a high number of bodies and body
parts, conducting all DNA work here in the UK. This process enabled
the repatriation of UK and other international victims and all
associated body parts to UK Coronial standards. The mortuary process
allowed the UK team to support local authorities through the Disaster
Victim Identification (DVI) process with the sharing of best practice
and the training of local staff. In addition, officers were able
to visit the scene and gain an insight into the events of this
attack in order to support the coroner.
Kenya
Following the attack on the Westgate shopping
centre, the CTELO had been heavily engaged with the Kenyan police
response. The decision was taken to deploy a Counter Terrorism
Command team of investigators in order to assist the Kenyan police
investigation and mentor local resources in the effective examination
of a terrorism scene, along with all the issues associated with
body recovery to an internationally approved standard.
The CTELO has an extremely good relationship
with the Anti-Terrorist Police Unit and this allowed the investigation
team access to relevant material and allowed for the team to assist
local staff with scene examination and body recovery. Previous
training has been delivered to the Kenyan police by the Counter
Terrorism Command but this was their first major scene. Working
alongside the Kenyan police, with the assistance of FBI colleagues,
the team were able to mentor them through all aspects of scene
management, scene investigation and body recovery. This included
mortuary management in mass fatality terrorist attacks.[68]
Funding for capacity building
72. Given evidence presented as to the increasingly
diverse and dispersed nature of the threat and its impact on the
UK and our interests overseas, capacity building is a vital tool
in influencing and shaping the international response to terrorism.
In his evidence to us Richard Barrett emphasised:
Capacity building in some areas I think is very
important. I think it is very important to encourage people to
act by the rule of law and so on, of course, building capacity
overseas from the point of apprehension to the point of verdict,
if you like, so that the treatment is correct. A terrorist, after
all, sees the state as his enemy, and therefore if the enemy is
responding to the terrorist in a way that they would respond to
any citizen, that slightly undermines the narrative. We know,
of course, of examples of people who have been rather surprised
by their treatment by Government in a positive way, which has
tended to de-radicalise them. Similarly, of course, if you treat
people badly, they become more radicalised. I think capacity building
just in the sense of awareness and understanding is enormously
important.[69]
73. One of the more troubling aspects of capacity
building is knowing how effective they are. Richard Barrett argued
"that absolutely every effort should be made to measure the
impact, because after all you are talking about taxpayers' pounds,
and this should be spent responsibly."[70]
However, he also noted that capacity building is not a straightforward
process and neither is measuring the impact. He told us:
It is very difficult to say whether something
was effective or not, and I think the more you can get your funds
into the hands of local partners who are working on the ground
in the community and measure what happens as a result of that
work, clearly the better. That means you are not spending £30
million, but you are spending maybe £30,000, because there
are community groups who cannot absorb huge amounts of money.
Then there are all sorts of knock-on effects about administrative
costs and everything else."[71]
74. On a recent trip to India, the Prime Minister
indicated that he was willing to see the UK's spending on international
aid be used to
make sure that the funds we have at our disposal
are used to provide basic levels of stability and security in
deeply broken and fragile states … We have our moral responsibilities
for tackling poverty in the world. We also have national security
responsibilities for mending conflict states and helping with
development around the world and we should see DfID in that context.[72]
It was suggested that funding could be diverted to
Ministry of Defence projects as a result.
75. The increasingly diverse and dispersed nature
of the threat makes capacity building a front-line defence against
a changing threat landscape. We note that the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office's budget is limited by available resources but given the
importance of capacity building to the Government's counter-terrorism
efforts we look to the OSCT and the FCO to reassure us that the
Counter-Terrorism Fund will be maintained at current levels in
this and the next financial year. In the light of the announcement
that the Prime Minister is considering using some of the UK's
aid budget on peace keeping and other defence-related projects,
we recommend that within the definitions of Overseas Development
Aid, money could be used to increase resource for capacity building
abroad.
76. Jean-Paul Laborde, Executive Director UN Counter-Terrorism
Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) highlighted that such work
is also done through the UN. CTED conducts work in collaboration
with its partners within and outside the UN system. It works with
them to develop the appropriate tools and methodologies to measure
the impact of the work that CTED and its partners are undertaking
in order to ensure that counter-terrorism measures are effectively
deployed.[73]
The nature of such capacity building support will vary depending
on the context but will include: training and mentoring local
CT police units in evidence based investigations, interviewing
and forensic techniques, where an emphasis is placed upon the
importance of human rights compliant processes and safeguards
to deliver reliable and viable prosecutions.[74]
77. We asked the Government for details of its capacity
building projects. The response we received was that the UK Government
Do not publicly disclose the location, number
or purpose of all our counter terrorist capacity building projects
overseas because they very often have a counter terrorist operational
purpose.[75]
The only programme it was willing to provide specific
details upon was the CAPRI (Counter-Terrorism Associated Prosecutorial
Reform Initiative) project in Pakistan which has the overall objective
of supporting national capacity in the fight against terrorism
and organised crime networks. However, we understand that despite
the Government informing us that CAPRI is part of the FCO's Justice
and Human Rights Partnership Programme, it is in fact funded by
the European Commission. The project is indeed being carried out
by the UK but is funded entirely from European budgets.
78. We accept that some of the UK's capacity building
programmes are sensitive but we believe that greater transparency
about how much the Government spends on capacity building overseas
and who funds these programmes (i.e. fully by UK Government or
jointly between UK and EU) is crucial for accountability.
The European Union
79. In his evidence to the committee, Gilles de Kerchove,
the EU's Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, painted a worrying picture.
Mr de Kerchove said that national budgets devoted to counter-terrorism
are declining across the EU but that
the threat that we face is becoming more diverse,
more diffuse, and more unpredictable.[76]
Mr de Kerchove was particularly concerned about Africa
where he suggested the threat was growing and becoming a major
obstacle to development.
80. In his evidence to us, Mr Laborde of CTED said
that
All States have had to make cut-backs in their
own expenditure. However, CTED, like its partners, works hard
to "do more with less" by developing capacity building
projects that are designed in very practical ways to maximize
the use of resources. These include the implementation of regional
approaches, in which capacity-building addresses the needs of
a number of countries at once.[77]
In order to respond to the changing threat picture
governments will have to increasingly identify pools of funding
and coordinate their action not least if national budgets are
in decline. Furthermore there is anecdotal evidence that there
was substantial duplication of effort and therefore and EU member
states could be better joined up in their actions.
81. In many cases focusing solely on Counter-Terrorism
will not be enough and should be part of a broader and more comprehensive
security and development strategy. The EU has set up a number
of programmes where it works to build capacity and ensure that
responses to terrorist activity are in line with the rule of law.
A full list of these programmes can be found in the written evidence
provided by the EU's Counter-Terrorism Coordinator.[78]
For reference, two of the programmes are described below:
· CT Sahel: 8,696,750€,
36 months (10/2011-10/2014), Mali, Mauritania and Niger, with
possible extensions to Burkina Faso and Senegal. The aim of the
project is to strengthen the capacities of law enforcement (police,
gendarmerie and garde nationale) and judiciary in the Sahel to
fight against terrorism and organised crime with the purpose to
support the progressive development of regional and international
cooperation against these threats.
· CT Pakistan
(CAPRI): 1,800,000€, 36 months (01/2013-12/2015). The overall
objective is to support national capacity in the fight against
terrorism and organised crime networks. The purpose of the action
is to improve the ability of Punjabi agencies to successfully
investigate, prosecute, convict and detain terrorists. The project
is being carried out by the UK.[79]
International capacity building
efforts
82. In his evidence to us Jean-Paul Laborde, Executive
Director, UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate
spoke of capacity building as a key plank of international cooperation
and its importance to achieving national and international security.
The transfer of know-how, through capacity-building
programmes, and technical assistance and training on identified
areas of need, from high capacity countries to lower capacity
countries, and through the activities of multilateral agencies,
such as those of the United Nations, not only builds capacity
where required, but also identifies best practices, and creates
regional and international networks of specialists and fosters
the habits of cooperation at the working level.[80]
83. Mr Laborde echoed previous witness by highlighting
the need for capacity building projects to be coordinated. There
is no doubt that CTED plays an important role in regular convening
donors and providers for briefings on capacity building needs
in particular States or regions but proper coordination of activity
is limited on the international stage and does seem to translate
to action on the ground. Given national budgets are in decline,
the necessity to act in unison and collaborate between states
is more important than ever.
84. One way that states can act in unison is by supplying
and utilising the information databases held by multi-lateral
law enforcement organisations such as Interpol. One of the key
databases collated by Interpol is the Stolen and Lost Travel Documents
database. Whilst its use by the UK authorities is extensive—it
was checked 140 million times last year with 16,000 travel documents
identified as not being valid—amongst other countries, including
European allies, its use is not as widespread. The table below
shows the number of time it was checked last year by the most
frequent users of the database.
| Country
| Number of searches
| % of searches of database
|
| UNITED STATES | 238 389 094
| 29% |
| UNITED KINGDOM | 140 184 265
| 18% |
| UNITED ARAB EMIRATES |
104 076 060 | 13%
|
| JAPAN | 34 712 623
| 4% |
| CROATIA | 34 131 673
| 4% |
| SINGAPORE | 29 271 045
| 4% |
| BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA |
18 672 539 | 2%
|
| SERBIA | 18 646 856
| 2% |
| SWITZERLAND | 17 259 652
| 3% |
| BULGARIA | 15 408 808
| 1% |
| CARICOM | 15 094 026
| 2% |
| QATAR | 12 000 981
| 2% |
| FRANCE | 11 587 347
| 1% |
| EL SALVADOR | 10 472 105
| 1% |
| ALBANIA | 10 214 658
| 1% |
| MONTENEGRO | 8 465 312
| 1% |
| OMAN | 7 811 925
| 1% |
| ROMANIA | 6 574 033
| 1% |
| CÔTE D'IVOIRE
| 6 473 294 | >1%
|
| PERU | 6 179 778
| 1% |
| Other |
| 8% |
Source: Interpol
85. Today the terrorist threat is a global one and
an attack anywhere in the World has the capability to harm UK
citizens and UK interests. We recommend that the Government
raise the issue of Interpol databases as part of discussions around
counter-terrorism at the next EU Justice and Home Affairs Council
and encourage others to utilise the tools at their disposal.
86. Interpol also carry out capacity building
projects as well as supporting national law enforcement agencies
in criminal cases which involve an international aspect. At present
Interpol can deploy their incident response teams to a suspected
terrorist incident within 24 hours. However, there are suggestions
that INTERPOL support to agencies would be greatly increased should
a proposal go ahead to develop an International Mobile Platform
to assist in the investigation of suspected terrorist incidents.
Such a platform would facilitate the records of individuals to
be cross-checked across all of the national security databases
of INTERPOL member countries as well as share or compare information
and intelligence with national security units around the globe.
It is envisioned that the platform would only be used in large-scale
incidents where multiple nationalities are involved. The platform
would require both resources and support from member countries
as it will comprise highly trained and equipped teams that can
support first responders in the affected country and assist that
country conduct sensitive and complex transnational investigations.
In order to be effective, it would have to be based in a permanent
command control centre with teams able to deploy to the affected
region.
87. Interpol is an international policing organisation
with a proven record of success and should be widely supported.
We recommend that the Government take the lead in working with
Interpol and the UK's international partners to create an international
operational platform supporting terrorist investigations. The
UK should use its pivotal position in the G7 to ensure that this
change is achieved. Whilst UK policing may lack sufficient resources
to supply a significant number of staff to such a platform, we
also recommend the Government consider offering to host the permanent
base of the platform.
59 CONTEST: The United Kingdom's Strategy for Countering Terrorism,
July 2011, Cm 8123 Back
60
Ibid. Back
61
CTE0035 Back
62
CONTEST: The United Kingdom's Strategy for Countering Terrorism,
July 2011, Cm 8123 Back
63
INQ0007 Back
64
Ibid. Back
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Ibid Back
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Q691-722 Back
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Q703 Back
72
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21528464 Back
73
CTE0035 Back
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INQ0010 Back
76
CTE0034 Back
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