The effectiveness of the UK government’s counter-terrorism scheme, Prevent, has come under scrutiny again. Sir William Shawcross, who conducted a review of the scheme in 2023, has said that key recommendations he made have been ignored, posing a risk to public safety.
Shawcross said the government’s response to his report was lacking, adding that while the government had said it had enacted almost all of his recommendations, the reality was that they had only implemented a fraction of them. Shawcross highlighted a need to pay greater attention to the Hamas support network, stating that unfortunately, there are many Hamas sympathisers and some operatives in the UK, and that Prevent should do much more to address their activities.
A crucial element of the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy, Prevent places public entities, such as schools and the police, under a legal obligation to identify potential extremists and intervene in their lives before it is too late. Shawcross’ criticisms come as the UK government celebrated a year since the publication of his independent report by stating that they had “brought Prevent back to its core mission”.
But Shawcross’ criticisms echo his previous findings that Prevent has repeatedly “failed” to identify attackers and that there was a “sense of lost purpose” to the scheme. Speaking to the BBC, Shawcross commented that the UK is now at more risk from extremism due to the recent attacks on Israel, and that the government needs to pay greater attention to the Hamas network in the country.
The Home Office has said that significant progress has been made to deliver a strengthened Prevent scheme, and that they have implemented 30 of the 34 recommendations made by Shawcross. The government also argues that statistics on Prevent referrals from before March 2023 do not reflect the impact of his report and recommendations on government policy. However, Shawcross remains concerned that enough has not been done to address the risks faced by the UK from extremist activities
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