22/02/24
Public left ‘at risk’ over UK counter-terrorism strategy, says Prevent review author
The author of a controversial review of Britain’s counter-terrorism strategy claims the public have been left “at risk” because many of his key recommendations have been ignored.
In a heavily criticised review of Prevent for the Home Office last year, William Shawcross concluded that it had concentrated too much on the far-right and not enough on Islamist extremism.
Shawcross told the BBC on Wednesday that Prevent was failing to identify terrorist sympathisers and that there was an increased risk in the UK due to the war in Gaza. Prevent gives public bodies a legal duty to identify people who may turn to extremism, and intervene.
Shawcross was previously accused of failing to do the job properly after it was revealed he had attended only six of the review panels charged with examining the more extreme cases identified by Prevent.
Ministers published a progress report on Tuesday, on the anniversary of the publication of Shawcross’s review, and said they had “brought Prevent back to its core mission”.
The home secretary, James Cleverly, said: “Thanks to the work undertaken in response to [Shawcross’s] review, we have a first-class Prevent programme that can play a central role in this effort.”
Shawcross told the BBC that ministers had “ignored” some of his key recommendations and that he thought “as a result the public is at risk”. The Home Office said it had implemented almost all of Shawcross’s proposals and would eventually enact them all.
Shawcross said: “The government has published a report saying that they have made some of those changes that I asked for, that I proposed – but not enough.”
He said he felt more worried about extremism in the UK after Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel, and that the government – through Prevent – “should pay much more attention to the Hamas support network”.
“There are unfortunately quite a lot of Hamas sympathisers and some operatives in this country,” Shawcross said, adding: “Prevent and the police should have been working much harder against those Hamas people in this country.”
He added: “The public are more at risk because of the events of 7 October and subsequently – and many, many people in this country are much more frightened than they have ever been before.”
The conclusions of Shawcross’s review were supported by the government despite drawing heavy criticism from human rights groups, but his latest comments put them at odds.
Government sources briefed the BBC that the most recent statistics on Prevent referrals end in March 2023, and therefore did not reflect any impact his recommendations might have had on government policy.
A Home Office spokesperson said the government had made “significant progress to deliver a strengthened Prevent”.
“William Shawcross’s review was critical to ensuring Prevent is fit for purpose, which is why we accepted his recommendations in full,” the spokesperson continued. “One year on, we have delivered 30 of the 34 recommendations he made, and we are making rapid progress on delivering the remaining four.
“The government agrees that extreme Islamist ideology presents the greatest threat to the UK and has moved swiftly to update Prevent duty guidance and training to make that clear.”
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