My Lords, perhaps I may start with a statement about our common values. A comment was made at the beginning that I or the Government were against British values. I state for the record that I am in absolutely no way against British values or the common values that we hold in this country, but the Government are committed to doing everything they can to protect communities from the threat of terrorism. That is a noble aim. It is vital that we use all the means at our collective disposal to divert people from terrorist-related activity.
As the noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller, said, Prevent is one of the four pillars that comprise Contest, the UK’s counterterrorism strategy. It is designed to safeguard and support those vulnerable to radicalisation, and to prevent their becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. To put this into context, it might help if I initially explain Prevent’s aims and the reasons that the Government have maintained the programme. It has three overarching aims. The first is to tackle the causes of radicalisation and respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism. The second is to safeguard and support those most at risk of
radicalisation through early intervention, identifying them and offering support. The third is to enable those who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate. I do not think anyone could disagree with those aims.
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This Government believe that preventing people being drawn into terrorism in the first place is crucial if we are to protect the public from the harm caused by such poisonous ideologies. That is why we have maintained the Prevent programme and continue to invest in it. Not only is it important; it works. It has made a significant impact in preventing people from being drawn into terrorism. In 2017-18, 181 community-based Prevent projects were delivered, reaching more than 88,000 participants. Almost half of these projects were delivered in schools and aimed at increasing young people’s resilience to terrorist and extremist ideologies.
As the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, said, I would be very interested to hear evidence from both noble Baronesses who mentioned it and my noble friend Lord Sheikh about which projects concern them. They can do that in writing to me if they do not wish to talk about it on the Floor of the House but I would be very interested to hear about the specific projects that concern people.
Since 2012, more than 1,300 people have been supported through the voluntary, confidential Channel programme, and since April 2015, more than 500 individuals who have received Channel support have left the process with no further terrorism concerns. To put this into perspective, it takes just one person to launch an attack—to drive a van across a bridge into pedestrians. The fact that more than 500 people have been diverted from terrorism demonstrates the immense value of this programme in keeping those vulnerable to terrorism and extremism safe. It also shows the potential for the damage that might have been done without it.
However, we face new challenges and a shifting threat landscape. In 2016-17, over a third of individuals who received support through Channel were referred for concerns related to far-right extremism. This is a higher proportion than in 2015-16, when just over a quarter of people who received Channel support were referred for concerns relating to far-right extremism. It is vital that we continue to tackle terrorism, regardless of its ideology. There are other areas of Prevent where we can point to real successes and I should draw the Committee’s attention to them. More than 150 attempted journeys to the Syria-Iraq conflict area were disrupted in 2015. Since the start of the conflict, around 100 children have been safeguarded by the courts from being taken to areas under Daesh’s brutal regime.
What we are seeing with Prevent is a considered set of measures designed to protect the most vulnerable in our society, and stop them being harmed by the malign influence of terrorism. Prevent is not the beginnings of state surveillance, as it has sometimes been portrayed. It is a safeguarding programme which works. I take my noble friend Lady Barran’s point about sharing the learning across the country because we know that there are areas and local authorities in which there is some very good practice.
In response to the specific amendments tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, and the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, I point out that Prevent continues to be open to public scrutiny. A number of noble Lords drew on this. While Prevent is successful at safeguarding individuals from becoming radicalised, it is not always well understood, so we have been increasing our transparency. We have already published details of Prevent’s work in the Contest annual report, which is laid before Parliament. We have made our Prevent training publicly available through an e-learning tool. We have increased the number and geographical reach of community round-table discussions, from 12 events facilitated in 2016-17 to 27 in 2017-18. We have undertaken a number of engagement events— 12 in 2017-18—with locally elected politicians, university students and academics. We have increased engagement with parliamentarians from all parties, led by my right honourable friend the Security Minister, to whom praise has been given this afternoon. We have published the Prevent duty toolkit for local authorities and partner agencies to provide practical information and examples of best practice to support local authorities and their partners in their work to implement the Prevent duty, and last November we published data on Prevent and Channel referrals for the first time to increase the transparency of the programme. We published further data on Prevent this March and will continue to publish data on an annual basis.
The Prevent programme is updated to reflect the current threat level, and it has taken account of other recent reviews, both internal and independent, across the breadth of our counterterrorism strategy, Contest. As such, the need for an independent review of Prevent is unfounded. Maintaining Prevent as one of the four “P”s in Contest demonstrates the Government’s confidence in the programme and our commitment to an effective, joined-up and comprehensive counter- terrorism strategy.
I understand the concerns of noble Lords, but we do not believe a review is necessary at this time, nor do we believe a lengthy one-off snapshot review will be of much utility. As it currently exists, Prevent is fit for purpose and, rather than being reviewed or abolished, its value should be recognised, and it should be maintained. The Committee should not just take my word for it. In evidence to the Public Bill Committee, we heard Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu describe Prevent as,
“the most important pillar in the Government’s strategy”,
and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, praised the work of Prevent for turning individuals away from terrorism in her evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee.
I also challenge noble Lords seeking a review of Prevent to articulate what they would put in its place. What different approach would they expect to come out of a review? I have not heard any this afternoon. Again, Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu hit the nail on the head when he told the Home Affairs Select Committee just last month:
“We need to understand that … every time somebody calls Prevent toxic and tries to come up with a new brand or a new set of tactics, the tactics are exactly the same as the ones that are
currently in place. I am not sure that changing the brand of something when the tactics are the same is a particularly wise thing to do”.
Of course, we must continue to explore how we can do things better and, in the normal way, the fifth anniversary of the passage of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 affords us the opportunity to undertake a post-legislative review of the provisions in Part 5 of that Act, which provides the legislative framework for Prevent. I hope my explanation of some of the positive impact that Prevent has will assuage any lingering concerns and that the noble Baroness will feel free to withdraw her amendment.