Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the budgets are for Prevent contractors in (a) 2018 and (b) 2019.
Answered by Ben Wallace
We do not provide detailed information about the funding allocation of local Prevent activity.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will publish the list of contractors for the Prevent programme in receipt of contracted payments in each of the last five years for which information is available.
Answered by Ben Wallace
As per the Government’s transparency and accountability policy all expenditure (individual invoices, grant payments, expense payments or other such transactions) is reported and published on the GOV.UK website. The minimum requirement from 2010‐11 for central government entities is to publish transactions over £25,000.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria his Department used for the selection of Prevent contractors in 2017-18.
Answered by Ben Wallace
In delivery of the Prevent programme, resources are focused in those locations where the threat from terrorism and radicalisation is highest. We support these communities to develop bespoke projects, best suited to tackle the threat from radicalisation, based on our collective analysis of the local threat picture in priority areas.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which organisations have been awarded contracts by his Department for the implementation of (a) Prevent and (b) other counter-extremism strategies in this fiscal year.
Answered by Ben Wallace
As per the Government’s transparency and accountability policy all expenditure (individual invoices, grant payments, expense payments or other such transactions) is reported and published on the GOV.UK website. The minimum requirement from 2010‐11 for central government entities is to publish transactions over £25,000.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of UK citizens or residents who have fought alongside ISIS; and how many have now returned to the UK.
Answered by Ben Wallace
Approximately 850 UK linked individuals of national security concern have travelled to engage with the Syrian conflict. We estimate that just under half have returned. This number includes all those of national security concern, not just those affiliated with Daesh. Everyone who returns from taking part in the conflict in Syria or Iraq must expect to be investigated by the police to determine if they have committed criminal offences, and to ensure that they do not pose a threat to our national security.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funding her Department plans to make available for policy measures to promote alternative narratives to extremism in 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Through this department and across government we are working to deliver programmes which offer an alternative narrative to extremism and it is not possible to disaggregate this work. One example, however, is the Building a Stronger Britain Together (BSBT) Programme and funding provisions for this programme are as follows:
- In 2016/17, BSBT spent £4,026,166.80 (on in-kind support and grant support to community groups, community coordinators and campaigns) to offer alternative narratives to extremism with and through partners. This includes £872,365.80 spent in 2016 on piloting the BSBT approach.
- The spend for 2017/18 will be confirmed at the end of the financial year.
- The budget for 2018/19 has not yet been finalised.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding was allocated to the Research, Information and Communications Unit in her Department in each of the last three years; and what estimate she has made of the amount of funding that will be allocated to that unit in the next two years.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The funding allocation for the Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU) for the past 3 years is as follows, this includes both the administration and programme funding and covers funding for both CT and SOC delivery:
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many intervention providers for the Channel Programme are pending approval.
Answered by Ben Wallace
There are 20 individuals currently undergoing assessment for approval to become intervention providers (IPs) for the Channel programme. Recruitment of IPs is a continuous process and 5 individuals have recently received Ministerial approval.
The table below provides the current regional location breakdown of approved IPs. The majority of IPs work nationally and are frequently commissioned to work outside of their geographical location. We keep the list of IPs under review to ensure that regional distribution is appropriate to the number of Channel cases.
Region | Number of IPs |
North East | 2 |
North West | 10 |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 0 |
East Midlands | 6 |
West Midlands | 10 |
East of England | 5 |
London | 17 |
South East | 1 |
South West | 2 |
Wales | 3 |
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of her Department's approved intervention providers for the Channel programme as located in each region of England.
Answered by Ben Wallace
There are 20 individuals currently undergoing assessment for approval to become intervention providers (IPs) for the Channel programme. Recruitment of IPs is a continuous process and 5 individuals have recently received Ministerial approval.
The table below provides the current regional location breakdown of approved IPs. The majority of IPs work nationally and are frequently commissioned to work outside of their geographical location. We keep the list of IPs under review to ensure that regional distribution is appropriate to the number of Channel cases.
Region | Number of IPs |
North East | 2 |
North West | 10 |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 0 |
East Midlands | 6 |
West Midlands | 10 |
East of England | 5 |
London | 17 |
South East | 1 |
South West | 2 |
Wales | 3 |
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to introduce legislation on technology companies preventing the publication of extremist material.
Answered by Ben Wallace
This Government has been clear there should be no safe space online for terrorists and their supporters to radicalise, recruit, incite, or inspire. In March 2017, the Home Secretary held a very positive meeting with industry to discuss online terrorist content. Subsequent to the roundtable, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft made a public commitment to look at options for establishing an industry led forum focused on tackling terrorist and extremist content online.
This was formally announced by the companies on 26 June 2016. We continue to work closely with industry to come up with new, innovative ways for tackling terrorist use of the internet but, as the Prime Minister has made clear, we will also explore the possibility of creating legal requirements for communications service providers if they fail to take the necessary action to remove unacceptable content.