Quality of training to deliver the Prevent Duty – the legal responsibility to take steps against radicalisation – remains an ongoing concern, according to the first annual report of a Standards and Compliance Unit, for short StaCU. Also a concern is ‘ensuring that an appropriate level of attention is being given to Islamism – the main terrorism and extremism threat the country faces’.
The unit, part of the Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE), an arm’s length body of the Home Office, reports also a ‘chronic unwillingness’ by staff, whether funded by Prevent or locally, to use the word “Islamist”, ‘because they fear this will act as a barrier to engagement with communities. The enhanced and improved training offer now available via Gov.UK and trusted external providers has the potential to help resolve this problem. However, the significant volume of non-quality assured, third-party provider training products that remain in usage is one reason why this problem endures’, according to the report.
The unit says it sees ‘widespread challenges facing the effective implementation of the Prevent Duty, especially at Local Authority level. For some areas there has been a failure to deliver Prevent beyond a single appointee. One practical consequence of this has been that other, non-Prevent parts of a Local Authority are funding or engaging with those of extremist concern. Clearly, this breaches the Prevent Duty in spirit.’ The unit singles out that councils ‘continue to partner with individuals and institutions’ who, the unit judges, “create and take advantage of permissive environments to promote or condone violence and to spread harmful ideologies’, quoting there from official Prevent Duty guidance.
In its first year, the unit took in 55 complaints; most the unit described in the report as ‘malicious, misguided and misinformed’.
Background
As mentioned in a foreword to the document by the Commissioner for Countering Extremism, Robin Simcox, the unit derives from the Independent Review of Prevent (IRP) which in February 2023 recommended a need for greater oversight of Prevent, the UK Government programme designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Schools, councils, doctors and other professionals have a legal requirement to report those that they fear may be at risk of becoming radicalised. Hence the requirement for staff training to know what to look for and where to report.
StaCU was launched in February 2024 and appointed an investigator in November 2024. For the report, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standards-and-compliance-unit-annual-report-2024-to-2025.
Meanwhile in a separate, end of year report, the outgoing Mr Simcox said that while ‘the threat from extremism is as stark ever’, posing an ‘civilisational challenge’, his commission ‘has helped ensure that government is better placed than ever to respond’.
In January Mr Simcox visited Southport, ‘to meet with local government, police and community groups to understand more about how the area was recovering from the acts of violence, disorder and riots’ of midsummer 2024. The Commissioner provides training on ‘Understanding and Countering Extremism’ to public sector practitioners in the field of countering terrorism.
