Thematic performance report against MPA/MPS Policing London Business Plan: preventing terrorism and extremism in London

Report: 6
Date: 8 September 2011
By: Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report identifies the current arrangements within the MPS and partners to prevent terrorism and violent extremism across London. It highlights ongoing thematic work that is taking place within London Boroughs and the impact of the new Prevent strategy launched in June 2011.

A. Recommendation

That

1. Members note the ongoing work to prevent terrorism and extremism, particularly in the build up to the Olympic Games.
2. Members note the implications of the new Prevent strategy, the resultant changes to performance monitoring and the work streams that are being developed with partners including those undertaken in preparation for the Olympic Games.

B. Supporting information

1. In 2007, the Home Office launched the Prevent strategy in the wake of the London bombings in 2005. The Prevent strategy aimed to stop people from becoming or supporting violent extremists. The strategy had five key themes of challenging ideology, disrupting those who promoted violent extremism, supporting individuals, increasing resilience of communities and addressing grievances. The strategy during its initial implementation was subject to criticism due to the overlap of what was a CT strategy with cohesion work. This presented additional observations that the Prevent agenda was solely focussed on the wider Muslim community and failed to deal specifically with individuals within communities, both Muslim and non-Muslim who were engaged in extremist rhetoric.

2. In June 2011, following a review, the Home Office launched a revised version of the strategy which further defined the objectives of Prevent, its role in challenging extremist ideologies, including right wing extremism, the roles of the police and relevant partners and made clear distinctions between the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) cohesion strategies and the scope of Prevent as part of the Home Office CONTEST strategy. It also identified 25 regions across England and Wales which would attract funding for Local Authority Prevent co-ordinators, 16 of those regions were in London, the majority of which are the inner London boroughs. As a result of the new strategy, and the changes in the focus of activity, new performance frameworks were developed which were implemented in August 2011.

3. As part of the CONTEST strategy, the portfolio for Prevent sits within the Counter Terrorist Command (SO15). Whilst the officers working within Prevent undertake the majority of community focussed work, the Channel team, which is a dedicated unit within Prevent, provide specific tailored interventions to vulnerable individuals to prevent them being drawn into terrorism or extremism.

4. This report highlights ongoing work aimed at improving our ability to tackle extremist activity in London in the lead up to the Olympic Games.

Work carried out for key corporate deliverables and a report on relative performance.

5. The implementation of the Prevent strategy in 2007 provided significant challenges to all police forces and ACPO with regard to quantitative and qualitative performance measurement. Developing processes to capture the impact specifically of Prevent activity within communities proved problematic not just for the MPS but for all police forces across the country and ACPO.

6. As previously outlined, the revised Prevent strategy was published in June 2011. SO15 are currently reviewing all measures that support this strand of CONTEST, ensuring that they reflect current strategy and adhere to the national framework. It is likely that some of the existing Prevent measures will be retained, as well as new ones being developed. A full update will be put before the sub-committee at the next Prevent performance update. All existing measures, where data is available, are within target (some measures report quarterly and first quarter data is not yet complete).

7. The MPA/MPS Business Plan identifies key Prevent deliverables, SO15 has deployed a full complement of 44 Prevent Engagement Officers (PEOs) across all 32 London boroughs in order to support operational delivery in conjunction with Territorial Policing and key external stakeholders.

8. Counter Terrorism Local Profiles (CTLPs) in each of the 32 boroughs were completed by the end of March deadline and have been delivered to BOCU commanders and Chief Executives of the Local Authorities. These will underpin the development of Prevent delivery plans in the 16 priority boroughs in London.

9. Channel has been implemented across all 32 London boroughs with the establishment of multi-agency Channel panels and the adoption of information sharing protocols.

Borough based performance and variance on key deliverables

10. Whilst the new strategy highlights those 16 London boroughs which attract additional funding for the Local Authorities for the co-ordination and delivery of Prevent activity, SO15 continues to dedicate resources to all 32 London boroughs regardless of whether funding is allocated. The resource distribution however is commensurate with the level of operational demand within boroughs. This results in some boroughs having up to 3 Prevent Engagement Officers whilst in contrast others share Prevent resources with a neighbouring borough. All Olympic boroughs are fully resourced with three Prevent Engagement Officers.

11. The Local Authorities are key partners in the delivery of Prevent. Some local Councillors have had reservations about Prevent nationally and this has affected their ability to engage with the police. Many of these issues are alleviated by the new strategy. However the MPS acknowledge some of these local concerns are still reflected in the range of responses to the Prevent strategy from Local Authorities across London. Work is currently being undertaken by SO15 senior managers together with Local Authority officers, particularly in the 16 priority boroughs, to address any concerns and provide support where appropriate in the lead up to the development of new delivery plans.

Future performance risks

12. Any potential reduction in funding for police and Channel intervention providers may have an impact on operational effectiveness in the delivery of appropriate interventions.

13. As previously outlined, the MPS are working with those priority Local Authorities to try and ensure consistency of approach with regard to governance arrangements for Prevent delivery. Additionally the MPS are working with Local Authorities to develop bespoke local Prevent delivery plans.

14. Local Authorities do not have to accept the Home Office funding for the post of Prevent co-ordinator or make additional bids for funding for the delivery of local programmes. Whilst it is not clear at this juncture if that scenario is likely to occur in any of the 16 priority boroughs, any Local Authority declining this funding would be theoretically disadvantaged in its ability to deliver Prevent locally.

15. Reductions to the wider police budget are likely to mean that there will be fewer officers from TP available to engage in the delivery of Prevent activity. In addition the separation of Prevent from Cohesion and Integration is likely to result in more focus by TP resources on the latter leaving Prevent to be delivered by SO15 and Partners. It is recognised that Cohesion and Integration work still needs to be undertaken prior to some aspects of Prevent work being delivered into the community. A coordinated approach to all these aspects of work is necessary in order for Prevent to be successful. In order to achieve this we are working closely with our colleagues in TP to ensure local engagement and Prevent work compliment each other.

Actions being undertaken to address shortfalls in performance

16. Whilst there are no shortfalls in performance against the key deliverables, as previously highlighted, the MPS are working closely with Local Authorities, ACPO and the Home Office to ensure consistency of approach in implementing new governance and performance frameworks in light of the new strategy.

An overview of joint working with partners

17. Communities and local Authorities are key delivery partners within the Prevent strategy. Prevent is part of the CONTEST strategy and deals with terrorism and thus responsibility for this falls to the Home Office. However Prevent depends on a successful integration programme which requires close working with those partners leading on integration namely DCLG and local authorities. Prevent is regarded by the Home Office as not owned by policing but is a programme in which the police have a central role to play. It must therefore exist as a cross-government and cross community programme in order to meet its objectives.

18. Since the initial implementation of Prevent in 2007, there has been close day to day working between the MPS and its key partners. This has been underpinned through the activity of Prevent Engagement Officers in each of the 32 London boroughs. Their primary role was to forge relationships with identified Local Authority Prevent leads and other key stakeholders and together develop joint Prevent delivery plans. Funding provided by the Home Office and DCLG was allocated to Local Authorities to support delivery of key projects at a local level. Many of those projects were delivered jointly by MPS and Local Authority staff.

19. In addition the PEOs were responsible for ensuring that Prevent initiatives that were delivered by Safer Neighbourhood Teams and other units were adequately supported by SO15. Some specific examples of key partnership working are outlined below.

20. The “Mecca to Medina “Project is a Home Office Award winning grassroots organisation providing constructive initiatives for the growing British African and African Caribbean Muslim community in Brent. Working in partnership with this organisation the MPS delivered the ‘Queen of Deens’ project which built upon work in engaging with the fast growing Muslim revert community in Brent. It aims to deliver a Muslim women leadership programmed (MWLP). The initial conference was attended by over 200 sisters, of which many were Muslim converts/reverts. Following on from this the MPS has developed an ongoing workshop programmed to develop their skills, knowledge, and confidence to participate in positive debate/discussion, promoting social inclusion, enabling them to feel an integral part of the Muslim and wider non-Muslim communities and empowering them to challenge extremist ideologies.

21. A programme has been developed which seeks to support individuals and build resilience for committee members and community leaders at Mosques and Islamic Centres across West London boroughs. There are close links between these bordering boroughs due to the movement and demographic profile of the communities. This programme is being delivered in partnership with a third sector organization. The training will strengthen governance and management of Mosques and Islamic Centres and Madrassahs which in turn develops resilience against extremist elements who wish to control the facilities. The training has also improved the trust and relationship with the Police, Local Authority and other partners with improved strategic communication and enhancement of information sharing. The success of the pilot workshop resulted in a number of mosques securing internal funds for their own workshops. This project will be developed across the other London Boroughs due to its popularity and clear tangible outcomes.

22. Work is ongoing with partners to address a number of challenges that are taking place across East London in respect of the call by some extremists groups for Shari’a Law to be adopted. This partnership approach includes Local Authorities, Borough Police and SO15 Prevent Officers. This relies upon information sharing and a quick response across all partners when issues are identified.

23. All 32 boroughs continue to operate formal multi agency protection panels and there have been 17 Channel referrals in April and May 2011. As of May there are 45 active referrals.

24. Channel have developed an immersive training exercise designed to allow key stakeholders who are routinely involved in multi agency protection panels to experience real time decision making around a Channel intervention. This project is ongoing and is prioritising Olympic boroughs. This complements the work on developing a risk assessment framework for Channel referrals and ensuring Channel is embedded into borough based safeguarding processes.

25. Prevent activity is fully included in the preparation for the Olympics. There are ongoing operational deployments around the Olympic boroughs, which will continue up to and through the Olympic games to challenge extremist activity. Impact of those deployments will be continually monitored and reviewed to complement other MPS activity to make the Olympics a secure and safe event.

26. The MPS is represented on a Home Office led Olympic Prevent Group. The group consists of a number of Key partners involved in the Delivery of Prevent on a national basis. Its aim is to ensure that there is a coordinated and joined up approach around the delivery of Prevent in the Key Olympic areas, and ensure that appropriate Prevent activity is undertaken.

C. Other organisational and community implications

Equality and Diversity Impact

1. The latest Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) for the delivery of Prevent across the MPS was undertaken during the latter stages of 2010. This is currently being reviewed following the implementation of the new strategy in June and is expected to be completed by September 2011.

2. Due to the strategic aims of Prevent in terms of preventing terrorism and in particular those acts inspired by Al Qa’ida, previous EIAs have focussed on any potential equality and diversity issues that have arisen regarding impact on religion and belief, i.e. the Muslim community. It has already been highlighted that the initial Prevent strategy did attract some adverse publicity from the Muslim community.

3. Consultation, during the course of the EIA, was undertaken with key community contacts across the MPS. This was undertaken electronically due to the size of the task, through borough contacts and supported by the PEOs. Responses to that previous consultation were limited and diverse in their understanding of Prevent and views of how it would impact on specific parts of the community. Due to this response measures were put into place to monitor impact of the delivery of the strategy through PEO and SNT activity, and monitoring of weekly community tension returns. Where specific Prevent activity was undertaken in a locality, the MPS were proactive in communicating through the DPA and key community groups the nature and intention of the work. Effective communication was key in ensuring any negative impact was minimised.

4. The new strategy has addressed earlier concerns expressed and been clear that Prevent encompasses all extremism. An additional EIA is therefore being undertaken.

Consideration of Met Forward

5. This report supports various strands of Met Forward. The work of SO15 supports the Met Specialist Strand by ensuring effective delivery of the CONTEST strategy in the lead up to the Olympic Games. In addition the work to prevent extremism and terrorist activity contributes directly to Met Streets ensuring that people who live in or visit London remain safe. Met Partners is supported by the work that Specialist Operations undertakes to prevent extremism in London in that none of the work undertaken with regard the CONTEST strategy can be delivered in isolation and without the support of partners and the community. This is particularly relevant with regard the delivery of the Prevent strategy which is led by the Local Authorities and supported by the community.

Financial Implications

6. There are no specific financial implications for the MPS as a result of this report. Funding for Prevent activity within the MPS is generally contained within the MPS CT Specific Grant. The estimated level of expenditure in 2011/12 is £4.1m covering 68 posts. Separate Funding from the Home Office is also provided for the Channel Project, this should total £0.7m in 2011/12 and covers 10 co-ordination posts. At present Channel funding of £0.5m has only been confirmed to December 2011. This recognises that the Home Office is currently reviewing the delivery model for Channel

Legal Implications

7. There are no direct legal implications arising from this report, which is presented for information only and submitted as part of the governance process.

8. The MPS is a key agency required to deliver the Government’s Prevent agenda. Collaboration with other agencies, partners, stakeholders and communities is considered to be key in contributing towards objectives under the agenda and ensuring policing services are delivered in the most effective and efficient manner.

Environmental Implications

9. There are no environmental implications associated with this report

Risk (including Health and Safety) Implications

10. There are no risk implications other than those already discussed within the body of the report.

D. Background papers

None

D. Contact details

Report author: Chief Inspector Simon Smith, SO15.

For information contact:

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

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