Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department plans to take to monitor individuals on the Prevent programme.

All Prevent referrals are triaged and assessed by specialist Prevent officers from Counter Terrorism Police. The launch of the new Prevent Assessment Framework across all CT Police regions gives Prevent officers more robust tools and training to triage and risk assess the various Prevent referrals they receive.

At present, if a radicalisation risk is identified, the Prevent referral will be progressed to the Channel programme, where the case will be assessed by a multi-agency Channel panel. The Channel panel is chaired by the local authority and works with multi‐agency partners to collectively assess an individual’s risk and decide whether an intervention is necessary. If a Channel intervention is required, the panel works with local partners to develop an appropriate tailored support package. The support package is monitored closely and reviewed regularly by the panel, including after case closure. The panel will review closed Channel cases at both 6 and 12 months after closure. If any radicalisation concerns are found during the review period, the case will be reopened. Panels also have the discretion to extend the period of review up to two years.

In addition, the Home Office are launching new pilots to provide additional assurance and review points within the Prevent referral journey, including for those assessed as not meeting Prevent thresholds, but where other vulnerabilities may still exist. The pilots will launch in several local authority areas this month. This includes additional assurance for the handling of cases where people are repeatedly referred into Prevent. We will also be working to achieve better assurance for cases that have been closed to Prevent but require non-CT support from local services, ensuring that re-referral to Prevent is made should any CT concerns re-emerge. An end-to-end review of Prevent thresholds is also underway and will report internally in April. This will look at strengthening our approach to repeat referrals, and ensuring clear and unambiguous guidance and training is in place for the full range of threats we face, from Islamist extremism to fixation with mass violence.