Last month the Home Affairs Select Committee published its report on New Forms of Extremism, and concluded that Prevent is not fit for purpose. This reflects Prevent Watch’s concerns, which we set out in our written evidence to the Committee, and which are based on over a decade of frontline casework. However, the report does not address the central issue. Instead, as the title of the report suggests, it starts from the premise that there is a growing and evolving “extremism” problem to which policies like Prevent are struggling to respond. Our evidence and experience shows that this perception is, in large part, produced by Prevent itself and reinforced by shifting political priorities which shape how “extremism” is defined and acted upon. The fact that “extremism” is not and has never been “fixed” nor legally defined has allowed for it to be continually expanded; this has resulted in the problems […]

Prevent Watch notes the announcement by the Home Secretary of the appointment of Tim Jacques as the new Independent Prevent Commissioner. Prevent Watch supports the creation of this role in principle, recognising that its value will depend on how independence is exercised in practice. However, the Home Office has appointed Mr Jacques, whose career has been built within senior roles of counter-terrorism policing, as Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Counter Terrorism Policing and as Senior National Coordinator for both Prevent and Pursue. This raises fundamental questions about the independence this role requires and that the public should expect. Dr Layla Aitlhadj, Director of Prevent Watch, said: “We are not questioning Tim Jacques’s personal integrity. We are questioning whether it is structurally possible for someone who has been a senior figure in building and running Prevent to now hold it to account.” “The communities most affected by Prevent, whom the Commissioner is […]