The handling of the murderer of Sir David Amess by the official counter-terror programmes Prevent and Channel was ‘sub-optimal’, according to a ‘learning review’. The murderer had been engaged with Prevent during 2014-2016, and in Prevent Case Management (PCM) and had been referred and accepted onto the Home Office Channel programme (for ‘vulnerable’ people who may be drawn into terrorism).
The murderer’s attending of college in Croydon, south London in his upper sixth form year became ‘sporadic’ (and was also described as ‘rapidly declined’) and he performed poorly in his A-Levels. Teachers, worried about radicalisation (and the teenager had ‘family issues’), talked to the teenager and family; and the college head contacted a police officer and as a result in October 2014 the boy was referred to Prevent. He had a home visit in November 2014. In January 2015, an ‘Intervention Provider’ (IP) had text and phone calls with the teenager; and one meeting with him over coffee. The review noted ‘a failure in communication between the police and the IP in terms of this case’.
The review points out that the UK has no single referral process for Prevent; and while a National Prevent Referral Form exists, ‘the take up is not consistent’ and described a Vulnerability Assessment Framework (VAF) as ‘problematic’: “As a tool aimed at identifying vulnerability it may well not be doing the job it was designed for but rather serves as a retrospective recording process which is completed by practitioners because they have to.”
As for record keeping and data retention, the review described the date of the teenager’s formal adoption by Channel as ‘not entirely clear’; and an early open-source check for social media profiles is not recorded.
The review found a ‘blurring of responsibilities in terms of the police and the local authority in terms of Channel’. The document is newly released on the Home Office website although a foreword to the document, and a ‘workshop’ in the West Midlands when the reviewer met 17 representatives from across policing and government departments, date from February 2022. The Amess family received a copy of the Prevent Learning Review via their legal representatives in March 2024.
Background
On October 15, 2021 the Southend Conservative MP Sir David Amess was murdered while at a regular constituency surgery at Belfairs Methodist Church Hall, pictured, in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Commons statement
As Home Office minister Dan Jarvis – the House of Commons, the murderer was convicted in April 2022 and received a whole life sentence. Mr Jarvis noted ‘no further Prevent referrals in the five years between the case being closed and the attack’. He said that the Home Office and Counter Terrorism Policing have fully implemented all four recommendations of the review: around the referral process; the initial intelligence assessment; the tool used to identify vulnerability to being drawn into terrorism; and data retention periods (maintained at six years). He said ‘we recognise the significant concerns that remain over the way in which Prevent dealt with the perpetrator – as well as the need to ensure that the recommendations it suggested for improving the scheme have properly been implemented’.
As for the personal security of members of Parliament, Mr Jarvis said that ‘the Speaker’s Conference is considering what reforms are necessary to further improve MPs’ safety and security’.
What police say
Head of Counter Terrorism Policing Matt Jukes said: “The murder of Sir David Amess MP in October 2021 horrified the nation and was a direct assault on our democracy. I have heard first-hand from his constituents about Sir David’s life of public service. It is clear from the Prevent Learning Review where the management and handling of Ali Harbi Ali’s case in 2014 should have been better.
“The report also acknowledges that by the time of the attack in 2021, significant changes had been made, and more work has been done since then to act upon the review’s recommendations. Difficult decisions in steering people away from radicalisation continue to be made every day, and with almost 60,000 Prevent referrals in the last decade, we owe it to all those affected, including those making the decisions, to take every opportunity possible to improve the system.
“It is critical that we use reviews such as this to ensure the system works now, and in the future, so that other families are spared the pain felt by the loved ones of Sir David.”
For the 60-page review, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-learning-review-sir-david-amess-attack.
