Intelligence and Security Committee Report: Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism/Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism Strategy (Home Office)
EXTREME RIGHT-WING TERRORISM STRATEGY (HOME OFFICE)
CONTEST (Counter-Terrorism Strategy)
189. In response to the 2017 terror attacks and the Operational Improvement Review (OIR), the Home Office released an updated Counter-Terrorism Strategy, CONTEST, in June 2018. CONTEST 2018 highlighted:
the growing threat from extreme right-wing terrorism, noting that these groups, including neo-Nazis, seek to exploit any anxieties around globalisation, conflict and migration and that they share a racist view that minority communities are harming the interests of a native population.[1]
190. A total of 31 departments and organisations contribute to the delivery of CONTEST.[2] The renamed Homeland Security Group (previously Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, OSCT) in the Home Office is responsible for counter-terrorism strategy and policy design and works with the Intelligence Community, CTP and local, national and civil society partners to deliver policy objectives across the '4-Ps':
- Prevent tackles intent, intervening to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism;
- Pursue tackles capability, that is, stopping terrorist attacks; and
- Protect and Prepare tackle impact, mitigating the effect of a potential terrorist attack.
Homeland Security Group also monitors the performance of the counter-terrorism system against the objectives set out in CONTEST.
191. Following the publication of the new CONTEST strategy, the UK counter-terrorism system increased their work on ERWT with a particular focus on understanding ERWT online behaviour and ERWT international links. Homeland Security Group advised the Committee that this work has been co-ordinated by the Counter-Terrorism Senior Responsible Official through the National Strategic Implementation Group for Counter Terrorism (NSIG CT), the strategic decision-making body for the counter-terrorism system across government.[3] As part of this drive, working groups have been established across the Intelligence Community and wider HMG on:
- Discovery and analysis;
- Online;
- Prevent;
- Human intelligence (HUMINT); and
- Prisons.
Prevent strand
192. The Prevent strand is, rightly, a matter for the Home Affairs Committee. The ISC primarily oversees the Pursue strand (which is covered in the next chapter), and is focused on the terrorist threat rather than extremism. Nevertheless, it was useful background for the Committee in this Inquiry to hear about the Extreme Right-Wing from those who manage the Prevent strand, and we have included that evidence as an Annex to this Report.
193. In the context of our Inquiry we do, however, note that there has been a significant increase in the number of individuals being referred to Prevent. Whilst there is no link between numbers of Prevent referrals, terrorism casework and warrant applications—each of which are entirely separate processes—it is nevertheless interesting to note the differences in ratios:[4]
M. The continuing rise in the number of referrals to Prevent for concerns around Extreme Right-Wing activity does not necessarily signal a similar increase in the Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism threat, rather it indicates a greater awareness of the potential risk and the greater focus being placed on this issue. We consider that the Home Affairs Committee may wish to examine how and why people are being referred to Prevent—and who is making these referrals.
Pursue strand
194. The objectives of the Pursue strand of CONTEST are to:
- Detect and understand terrorist activity
- Investigate terrorist activity
- Disrupt terrorist investigations, including through prosecutions.[5]
This work is primarily conducted by MI5, with CTP holding the executive action role, and oversight conducted by this Committee. Pursue activity is covered in the next chapter.
Working with advocacy groups
195. There are a number of advocacy groups involved in campaigning against racism and fascism. Nick Lowles, Chief Executive of Hope Not Hate, told the Committee that Hope Not Hate has informants inside a number of these Far-Right organisations, although when asked if it also followed that this meant his group had built links with the police he replied that "we don't have a particularly great relationship [with the police]", noting that "with third party groups like ourselves and others, when they get hold of information it's not that easy to put information into the system". He pointed to the example of:
the Rosie Cooper [MP] plot where we had someone inside National Action after it was proscribed. That person learnt of a plot to kill a Labour MP which was days away from happening. Obviously it was our duty and we've got rules internally, and with our Board and with the Charity Commission and everything, we have these rules, but we had to go to the police with that, knowing that first of all someone was going to have to come out and give evidence but also and this is the situation with our relationship with the authorities. So Counter Terrorism then threatened to arrest us because we initially wouldn't hand over the name of the person until we had an agreement he wouldn't be prosecuted.[6]
196. The Director General of MI5 advised that they might ***:
***.[7]
When we asked the Home Secretary how often she met with advocacy groups, she said that whilst she herself did not: "we [the Home Office] do as an organisation".[8]
N. Advocacy groups can play an important role, however we recognise that MI5 and Counter Terrorism Policing may be constrained in the way in which they are able to interact with them at an operational level, and we would encourage the Home Office to develop constructive relationships at a strategic level instead.
- ↑ Counter-Terrorism Strategy (CONTEST), June 2018.
- ↑ The Home Secretary has responsibility for CONTEST, and the Homeland Security Group (formerly termed the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism—OSCT) leads on supporting and developing CONTEST. The following 28 departments and organisations contribute to CONTEST: Cabinet Office; Centre for Protection of National Infrastructure; Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP); Crown Prosecution Service (CPS); Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl); Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS); Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS); Department for Education (DfE); Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); Department for Transport (DFT); the devolved administrations; Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO); Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ); Government Office for Science (GO-Science); HM Treasury (HMT); Joint International Counter-Terrorism Unit (JICTU); Joint Overseas Protect and Prepare Team (JOPP); Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC); Local Authorities; Ministry of Defence (MoD); Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG); MI5; Ministry of Justice (MoJ); National Crime Agency (NCA); National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC); National Security Council (NSC); Northern Ireland Office (NIO); and Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).
- ↑ The National Strategic Implementation Group for Counter-Terrorism (NSIG CT) is the strategic decision-making body for the counter-terrorism system and represents over 20 departments, agencies and bodies. It also includes a sub-group which engages with the devolved administrations, local authorities and a wider membership of government departments.
- ↑ These figures cover the following periods:
- Prevent referrals covering period 2020-2021 (ending March 2021) - Oral evidence, Home Office, 29 April 2021
- Number of SOIs (week commencing 26 April 2021) - Oral evidence, MI5, 28 April 2021
- New warrants issued in 2020-2021 - Written evidence, MI5, 26 May 2021
- Plots disrupted in 2016-2021 - Oral evidence, MI5, 29 April 2021.
- ↑ Counter-Terrorism Strategy (CONTEST), June 2018.
- ↑ Oral evidence - Nick Lowles, Hope Not Hate, 16 December 2020.
- ↑ Oral evidence - MI5, 29 April 2021.
- ↑ Oral evidence - Home Secretary, 20 May 2021.