Home Secretary Priti Patel has vowed to overhaul the UK's flagship counter-terrorism programme, Prevent, following a series of high-profile failures. The scheme has faced intense criticism for failing to identify extremists who later committed horrific murders, including the case of Ali Harbi Ali, who murdered Sir David Amess. Ali was referred to Prevent in 2014 but was deemed no longer a threat a year later.
Patel stated that 'things need to change' once she receives the findings of a long-awaited independent review of Prevent, commissioned in January 2021 and conducted by former Charity Commission chief William Shawcross. The review is understood to be near completion.
Prevent, established in 2006, aims to combat Islamist extremism, far-Right fanatics, and those with 'mixed or unstable' ideologies. However, critics argue it has been skewed towards right-wing extremism, diverting resources from the principal threat of Islamist terrorism. A report by the Henry Jackson Society last year accused officials of allowing the scheme to be swayed by 'false allegations of Islamophobia'.
A Channel 4 Dispatches documentary reveals that out of 13 terror attacks in the past five years, seven offenders were known to Prevent. A former teacher of Ali Harbi Ali warned authorities seven years before the murder, but was told he was not considered a threat.
Dr Alan Mendoza of the Henry Jackson Society said the shake-up 'could not come soon enough' and praised Patel for cutting through bureaucracy to restore Prevent to its founding purpose of cracking down on terrorism.
