Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the National Maritime Intelligence Centre is providing a detailed surface picture of contacts approaching the Territorial Waters of the UK in order to enable the Border Force to intercept such vessels, and how many such interceptions there have been in the last six months.
Answered by Lord Bates
It is Home Office policy not to comment in detail on National Maritime Intelligence Centre (NMIC) capability or tasking, as to do so would, or would be likely to, prejudice national security
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any work is underway to undermine Islamic State's propaganda on social media, and how much money has been allocated to that work.
Answered by Lord Bates
Extremist and terrorist organisations such as Da’esh use social media and other internet tools to spread fear, disseminate propaganda and persuade individuals to join their groups and support their aims.
The Government’s Prevent strategy is focused on preventing people from being drawn into terrorism by challenging the terrorists’ ideology and supporting those vulnerable to its appeal.
As part of Prevent, our dedicated police unit supports industry to remove, on average, 1,000 pieces of terrorist-related internet content per week. The Research, Information and Communication Unit (RICU) also helps build the capacity of civil society groups to confront and challenge the ideology of terrorism and extremism. By bringing civil society groups together with communications professionals and industry experts, it has provided them with advice and support, production capabilities, public relations expertise and social media training.
British Muslim communities are playing a leading role in the fight against Da’esh’s poisonous narrative. This work, which allows them to share their alternative message more widely, is specifically aimed at undermining Da’esh’s propaganda.
The threat of Da’esh is global and RICU is working closely with international partners and others to develop similar approaches.
The Prevent programme has been allocated £65 million for the 2015/2016 financial year.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how the work conducted in 2009 on counter-terrorism protective security in crowded places has been carried forward, and whether there is an established doctrine or policy for ensuring the safety of such places.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Government put in place a programme under CONTEST, the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy, to improve protective security and preparedness at a range of sites by ensuring businesses have access to high quality protective security advice, including through police specialist Counter Terrorism Security Advisors (CTSAs) who operate across the whole of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. In 2014 the programme was refreshed with an enhanced site assessment process and an improved partnership approach with business.
CTSAs are engaged at sites across the country to give protective security advice, to train staff in Counter Terrorism awareness, and to encourage managers to develop response plans to a range of threats. CTSA advice is based on a range of protective security improvement and preparedness measures, and is designed to be appropriate and proportionate and wherever possible cost-effective. The National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) has also published on its website protective security advice and guidance for owners and operators of different types of businesses to identify key risks and consider what steps they should take.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many police Counter Terrorism Security Advisers were employed in England and Wales in (1) April 2010, and (2) April 2015.
Answered by Lord Bates
Advice and guidance on protective security and preparedness to terrorist threats is provided by specialist Counter-Terrorism Security Advisors (CTSAs) who operate in every police region.
The number of CTSAs in post in England and Wales in April 2010 was 191. The number in post in England and Wales in April 2015 was 146 (this figure includes 4 Counter Terrorism Awareness Advisers dedicated towards the provision of CT awareness advice).
Government aims to have 171 staff in post by the end of 2016/17 (145 CTSAs and 26 CTAAs). These planned changes to resource are for the effective and efficient delivery of future advice and guidance, whilst ensuring they maintain their fundamental role as part of wider police capabilities to safeguard the security of the public.