Delivery of Prevent

Report: 4
Date: 29 January 2009
By: Assistant Commissioner Robert Quick on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

The purpose of this report is to provide the sub-committee with a detailed account of what the MPS is doing to deliver Prevent.

A. Recommendation

That the activities undertaken by the MPS to deliver Prevent are brought to the attention of the Counter-Terrorism and Protective Services committee.

B. Supporting information

ACPO Prevent Strategy

1. The MPS has a Counter-Terrorism strategy (Contest) board in place for all four ‘P’ strands and is represented on all the national Prevent boards. Funding has been secured for four co-ordinators across the MPS to ensure that Channel is introduced across all boroughs. These are expected to be in place in April.

2. Strategic delivery is supported by the Territorial Policing (TP) Chief Officer Group (COG), which will formally endorse the implementation of Prevent Engagement Officers (PEO) across the MPS in January that underpins:

• The creation of a PEO network reflecting that of the Specialist Operations (SO) Counter-Terrorism Command’s (CTC) Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Officers (CTIO), the recruitment of which has commenced.
• The CTC line management of PEOs deployed locally by the borough commander.
• Positive action to encourage Muslim applicants (working with the National Association of Muslim Police [NAMP]).
• The convergence of TP and CTC activities undertaken by the SO Muslim Contact Unit (MSU), SO Communities Together Strategic Engagement Team (CTSET) and Prevent officers.

Partnership

3. The CONTEST (London) board will commence in March, whose members will include: MPS TP/SO business groups, Government Office for London (GOL), Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), Guardian forces (British Transport Police [BTP], MOD police and the City of London police) and local authorities’ chief executive representation.

4. The London Prevent board has been set up as a partnership board comprising of key London (and a few national) based agencies.

5. The SO Programme board that includes work-stream leaders and TP representatives will soon merge with the Prevent pilot board, which currently oversees TP expenditure and development of Prevent activities on the pilot sites as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). TP/SO Association of Chief Police Officer (ACPO) meetings have been formalised to ensure cross business cooperation.

6. A Prevent oversight board has been created comprising of representatives from the Association of Muslim Police (AMP), Muslim Safety Forum (MSF), the MPA and the Independent Advisory Group (IAG), and will meet in the New Year. A 3-way meeting process involving the MPS, GOL and the OSCT will begin in the New Year to identify problems a borough might experience that requires support or intervention.

7. CTSET is now located within SO leading on partnership and community engagement under the Prevent strand. Field support functions for boroughs have been developed within the SO Prevent Delivery Team and CTSET. Boroughs are developing partnership Prevent based forums, either as a separate function or as part of the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) and Local Strategic Partnerships (LSP). A number of youth and women engagement programmes are being developed across several boroughs.

8. The MPS has taken on the National Community Tensions Team’s (NCTT) Operation Nicole ‘franchise’ and is developing and running initiatives across the MPS.

Information sharing

9. The National Prevent Implementation Plan has been absorbed into the MPS Prevent plan, which is being monitored across three work streams: community engagement and partnership; intelligence, and, leadership and delivery. Work is beginning on a series of CT briefings for elected members.

10. Rich Picture briefings are being delivered by CTIOs across all boroughs and we are working with a range of agencies to develop a Prevent/Pursue overlap process that will consider options in non-pilot boroughs. CTC intelligence desks are being re-organised to provide geographic based support across all boroughs. Gateway briefing products are being prepared by the CTC for priority boroughs beyond the pilot sites. A CT based Crime Control Strategy meeting (CCSM) focusing on Prevent and Partnership based activity covering all boroughs has been held.

Training

11. The National Implementation Plan, initial guidance and partnership guidance was circulated to all boroughs in 2008. In March 2009, the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) will issue further Prevent guidance. Prevent based intelligence and community engagement (ICE) training has been developed by the NPIA. The MPS awaits this planned roll-out because the NPIA is considering the use of National Centre for Applied Learning Technologies (NCALT) for delivery.

Risk

12. The requirement to embed Prevent activities in London boroughs is not the sole responsibility of the MPS and is reliant on partnership activity in boroughs.

Corporate learning

13 The Prevent delivery team with field and help desk functions has been created to oversee and manage the delivery of the MPS implementation plan to support all boroughs. SO support resources have been restructured into the Counter-Terrorism Support Unit (CTSU), with a desk for each strand of CONTEST to capture organisational learning. The MPS approach to S.44 Terrorism Act (TACT) is under review, as a contributor to a community sense of grievance. Four chief inspectors are being recruited to work on the TP links to coordinate the delivery of Prevent in their role as Prevent co-ordinators. This will effectively mainstream Programme Support. The developing strategy focuses on priority areas identified by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).

C.  Legal implications

None

D. Race and equality impact

We are developing attitudinal based survey work that will specifically survey the Muslim community around confidence based Prevent issues. We will then use this on a benchmark basis to develop performance indicators. An equality impact assessment (EIA) has been completed for the police response to CONTEST and the specific activity for Prevent strand has been completed and now being written.

E. Financial implications

There are no additional funding implications as a result of the MPS activity on Prevent described in this report. MPS Prevent activity is funded from MPS Counter-Terrorist Specific Grant. It has been funded as part of a National bid made over the Comprehensive Spending Review period (2008/9 to 2010/11) to support the Governments CT Strategy (CONTEST). The Prevent elements of this bid are already included in the base budget for CT in 2008/9 and the growth element is similarly included in the MPS Business Plan for 2009/10 and 2010/11.

F. Background papers

None

G. Contact details

Report author(s): John Bunn QPM – SO2, MPS

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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