Police 'understand the purpose of Prevent and are meeting their obligations'

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services has today published an inspection report on the police’s contribution to the government’s Prevent programme.

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Counter-terrorism policing – An inspection of the police’s contribution of the government’s Prevent Programme

Inspectors found that forces in general were:

  • meeting their Prevent duty;
  • working effectively with other organisations; and
  • using policies and effective processes designed to protect people from being radicalised.

HM Inspector of Constabulary Matt Parr said:

“In this inspection, we sought to answer the question, “How effective is the police contribution to Prevent?”. What we found was a largely encouraging picture. Although there is some inconsistency in the way forces operate, there were examples of innovative and effective working.

“We are pleased that, since our inspection, the College of Policing now includes a module on vulnerability to radicalisation in its national safeguarding training programme. This will help improve consistency between forces in how they train their officers and staff in these important areas.

“We have made eight recommendations that we feel, given the positive work we have seen, the service is on a solid foundation to achieve.”

Get the report

Counter-terrorism policing – An inspection of the police’s contribution of the government’s Prevent Programme

Notes

  1. The field inspection visits took place between October 2018 and February 2019. We visited all 43 Home Office police forces in England and Wales. We also visited the British Transport Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary and Ministry of Defence Police.
  2. The UK Government’s strategy for countering terrorism is called CONTEST and is co-ordinated by the Home Office. Prevent is one of four strands of CONTEST often referred to as the 4 Ps: prevent, pursue, protect and prepare. Prevent aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.
  3. The objectives of the Prevent work strand are to:
    • tackle the causes of radicalisation and respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism;
    • safeguard and support those most at risk of radicalisation through early intervention, identifying them and offering support; and
    • enable those who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate.
  4. HMICFRS is an independent inspectorate, inspecting policing and fire and rescue services in the public interest. It assesses and reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of police forces and fire and rescue services. HMICFRS inspects all 43 police forces in England and Wales together with other major policing and law enforcement bodies. It also inspects 45 fire and rescue services in England.
  5. For further information, HMICFRS’s press office can be contacted from 9:00am – 5:00pm Monday – Friday on 020 3513 0600.
  6. HMICFRS’s out-of-hours press office line for urgent media enquiries is 07836 217729.