you will recall an episode in Glasgow where a man stabbed a number of other people in a hotel that was being used for asylum seekers and, again, for the first few hours it was not clear to Police Scotland colleagues, or to ourselves, what really we were dealing with here: was this, as it turned out, a desperate man in some form of deranged state, or was this an ideological attack?[1]
84. Reporting shows that a number of those convicted of ERWT offences have the developmental disorders Asperger's or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Jonathan Hall QC, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, recently announced that he understood that the incidents of autism and referrals to the Prevent programme were "staggeringly high" and that "it is as if a social problem has been unearthed and fallen into the lap of counter-terrorism professionals".[2]
85. It transpires that ASD with regard to ERWT is the subject of debate across the medical profession. The Head of CTP told the Committee that the issue of ASD was something of a "contested space" in this area:
So not all medics agree with my [CTP] people's assertion that the people that they are dealing with might have complex psychological needs. So it is not just the fact that we are very early on this; some people won't see it. So we are seeing what we think are younger people, particularly with Asperger's and autism, on that spectrum, but, you know, it is not agreed by any stretch of the imagination. So you are right to flag that more work needs to be done in this area. We are doing that work. It is very early days.[3]
86. This was borne out by Homeland Security Group, who, with particular regard to the Prevent programme, observed:
Anecdotally, if you asked any of my Prevent coordinators across the country, they would say they are seeing a link between autism and some of the right wing casework; any mental health professional would say those people are not really qualified to say that, which is an entirely legitimate observation but it is something I get very regularly from my folks on the ground.
In prison, where obviously the opportunity to look more carefully at the mental health conditions that affect any prisoner is easier it is a more controlled environment a study we have done has shown about a five times higher than normal prevalence of autism amongst those [Extreme] Right Wing prisoners, but even that I caveat because the numbers in that sample are so low that any mental health professional worth their salt would say that is just not enough to make a judgment on. So it is something we are looking at very carefully. It is really really difficult, but it is very much on all of our minds.[4]
- ↑ Oral evidence - MI5, 29 April 2021.
- ↑ 'Staggeringly high number of people with autism on UK Prevent scheme', The Guardian, 7 July 2021.
- ↑ Oral evidence - CTP, 29 April 2021.
- ↑ Oral evidence - Home Office, 28 April 2021.
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