Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 21 April (HL Deb, col 762–4) on religiously motivated crime, whether they will provide details of which community groups the Home Secretary is engaging with in the "community round tables", and how many times each of those round tables have met in the past year.

In his speech on countering extremism in July 2015, the Prime Minister said that he wanted to hear directly from those in our society who are challenging extremism. The Community Engagement Forum is one of the ways we are doing this. The Forums provide a platform for a wide range of partners to share their experiences and learn from each other. Attendance at the Forums is fluid to ensure Ministers can hear from a wide range of partners from a variety of backgrounds.

To date, the Community Engagement Forum has met on 13 October 2015, 19 November 2015 and 14 January 2016. A list of those that have attended is available in response to written parliamentary questions HL6419 and HC20784. Further community forums are planned for later this year. In addition, I myself have chaired round tables with different faith communities and leaders.