Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the timetable announced by her Department in April 2019 for appointing an Independent Reviewer of Prevent remains in place; and whether the independent review of that strategy will be completed by August 2020.

The Government decided to appoint the next Independent Reviewer of Prevent, following Lord Carlile stepping down, by a full and open competition. The recruitment competition was launched on 27 April 2020. Applications for this post will be open until 11pm on 1 June 2020 and the successful candidate will be announced in due course. For more information on this recruitment please see https://publicappointments.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/appointment/independent-reviewer-of-prevent/.

A full and open process will take several months, and we want to ensure that the new Reviewer has sufficient time to complete the Review. We are aware that this is likely to have implications for the Reviewer’s ability to meet the existing legislative timescale for completing the Review (12 August 2020), and we are taking steps to address this. Further details will be provided to Parliament at the earliest opportunity.

Once the Reviewer has been appointed, that person will agree revised terms of reference and have the discretion to decide how to conduct the Review.