One day after the one-year anniversary of the London Bridge attack, Sajid Javid has announced plans to support and expand the powers of security services to combat terrorism in the UK.
The Prevent programme, which is aimed at tackling the threat of radicalisation, will be reinforced through changes that will declassify information on “subjects of concern” so the data can be shared throughout the various British security agencies. The government estimates that around 20,000 such people exist, and intelligence on these potential suspects will be shared across the government, local authorities and the police force.
The Home Secretary has stated that MI5 and the police will now have an ‘enhanced’ use of data to track suspects, including collaboration from within the private technological sector. Javid has requested that businesses, in particular tech companies, engage more actively in Prevent. For instance, he wants tech firms to sound the alarm when they identify worrying buying-patterns online, or when rental companies spot suspicious behaviour from a customer hiring a vehicle.
Additionally, the changes to Prevent will shore up plans to increase maximum sentences for some offences, such as repeatedly looking through terror content online. A new approach to combatting extreme right-wing violence will be included too. On top of this, Mr. Javid confirmed the security services will hire an extra 2,000 officers.
The Home Secretary believes these new powers will enable security services to disrupt terror threats at an earlier stage.
Mr. Javid claims the new approach will
“involve MI5 and the police using and sharing information more widely, working with partners such as local authorities to improve our understanding of those at risk of involvement in terrorism, and enable a wider range of interventions.”
Costing £40 million a year, critics of the government’s Prevent strategy say it is already too heavy-handed, and that with increased powers, abuses of human rights will escalate further. Innocent people could find themselves on a government blacklist without sufficient evidence or reason, having their private information shared without consent. Whilst government officials are convinced that early intervention is a positive step, other commentators say the increasingly heavy-handed Prevent programme risks undermining the freedoms and liberties of the state.
Corey Stoughton, advocacy director of human rights NGO Liberty, said
“the government continues to use dangerously vague definitions of extremism to tarnish communities, encourage policing by prejudice and press service providers and local authorities into becoming unwilling and untrained agents of the security services.”
However, Javid dismissed suggestions that sharing intelligence information with officials outside the intelligence community could involve breaching people’s human rights, and data protection laws.
A spokesperson from the Local Government Association, Simon Blackburn, commented:
“Information sharing could be a positive step. But local authorities are not MI5 and it’s essential that the police and security services lead on responding to and acting on any threats.”
The modifications to Prevent have been made at a time of alarm. Firstly, there is increased anxiety over how quickly terrorists are now being radicalised. Another cause for concern is the increasing rapidity with which terrorist cells can execute an attack after its conception.
Some politicians have warned of a potential influx of terrorist attacks, caused by those soon to be released from prison. Working from figures compiled by the Sentencing Council, the Guardian published data revealing over 40% of the sentences for terrorism offences in the UK that were handed down between 2007 and 2016 will have been served by the end of 2018. All of the people who were sentenced in that timeframe for funding terrorism, failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism, or found to be in possession of terrorist materials, will have served their time by the end of 2018.
Security services have predicted that the threat from Islamic terrorist groups will remain at its current heightened level for a minimum of two years. The risk from extreme right-wing terrorism is on the rise also, which has informed the decision to reform Prevent. 12 Islamist and 4 right-wing extremist plots have been foiled by security agencies since March 2017.
Sajid Javid’s announcements came a few hours before Safaa Boular, an 18-year old from London, became Britain’s youngest convicted female Islamic state terrorist. Found guilty for two offences of preparation of terrorist acts, the case of Safaa clearly illustrates the need for early intervention. However, this intervention must not violate the rights of those being monitored.