Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Prevent strategy.

Mr John Hayes

As part of the Prevent Strategy we have trained over 450,000 frontline workers in spotting signs of radicalisation. In Channel, hundreds of people have been successfully provided with support. 130 community based projects were delivered in 2015, up from 70 in 2014, reaching over 25,300 participants. Our local coordinator network has dramatically increased its reach, working with over 2,790 different institutions and engaging nearly 50,000 individuals over the course of 2015.

Following referrals from the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit, social media providers removed 58,000 pieces of illegal terrorist material in 2015, compared with 46,000 in 2014. This brings the total to 140,000 since February 2010 when the police Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit was set up.

We report on Prevent delivery annually through the CONTEST Annual report. The next report will be published shortly.