A collection of news articles, reports, and publications available in the public domain, which are relevant to UK policing.
The Home Office has published the operation of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000, financial year ending March 2019. The publication includes statistical material relating to the Terrorism Act 2000, including arrests and outcomes and stop and searches.
Key findings include the 40% reduction in arrests for terrorism-related activity, 268 for the year ending March 2019 compared to 443 the previous year. Of that 268 arrests, 34% resulted in a charge.
Source: Gov.uk
The Government has released a report on the operation of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT) and subsequent legislation for the financial year ending Match 2019. This release, which can be found here, includes statistical material of arrests and their outcomes, as well as breakdowns of stop & searches made under the powers of the Act.
The Home Office has published a report detailing the progress of implementing the recommendations of the operational improvement review and post-attack reviews of 2017. The report was produced by Lord Anderson of Ipswich KBE QC in conjunction with MI5 and Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP).
Included in the report is a section on a stock-take performed by Lord Anderson. This was done to examine whether MI5 and CTP approached the task of implementation in the right spirit; to record the nature and quantity of work that has been, and continues to be done; and to comment on the quality of work, including lessons learned from it. These findings are then included in an overall progress section of the report.
The report can be read in full here.
Source: Gov.uk
The Home Office has published a circular regarding the recent Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. This circular is issued to inform law enforcement agencies of certain provisions in Part 1 (counter terrorism) of the Act, which came into force on 12 April 2019. Part 1 of the Act amends certain existing terrorism offences to update them for the digital age, to reflect contemporary patterns of radicalisation and developments in the terrorist threat, and to close gaps in their scope.
The Home Office have issued a response to the Annual Report on the Operation of the Terrorism Acts in 2017, by the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation.
In the response, different aspects of the report, such as the Threat Picture and Port and Border Controls, are discussed including whether the Government stance on a particular matter has changed and if so, what is now being done in response.
The full response can be found here
Source: Gov.uk
The United Nations Security Council had unanimously adopted a resolution which calls for its member states to increase efforts to combat and criminalise financing terrorist organisations and their activities.
Resolution 2462 (2019) under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter was unanimously adopted, reaffirming resolution 1373 (2001) adopted after 11 September 2001, requiring states to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorist acts and refrain from supporting those involved in them.
Source: un.org
The Counter-Terrorism (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 have been published by the government. Information from gov.uk can be found here. They will come into force in accordance with regulations made by the Treasury under section 56 of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018.
The Counter-Terrorism (International Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 are intended to provide for part of the UK’s counter-terrorism sanctions regimes after the UK leaves the EU. They aim to further the prevention of terrorism in the UK and elsewhere by bringing together elements of several existing sanctions regimes.
This sanctions regime also gives effect to the UK’s obligations under UN Security Council Regulation 1373. When these regulations come into force, they will replace, with substantially the same effect, relevant existing EU legislation and related UK regulations.
There are other sanctions regimes relating to countering terrorism: The ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida sanctions regime and the Counter-Terrorism sanctions regime.
Source: Gov.uk
Thousands of Britons regularly use online forums that espouse right-wing extremism, based on analysis by anti-fascist charity Hope not Hate.
Security services, have placed the threat of right-wing extremist ideology on par with Islamist and Northern Ireland-related terrorism. However, they have not revealed how many of the 700 or so live terror plots and 20,000 individuals classified as “closed subjects of concern” are related to right-wing terrorism.
Source: Guardian
The Intelligence and Security Committee has published its annual report for 2017-18.
The Committee oversees the intelligence and security activities of the UK, including the
policies, expenditure, administration and operations of the Security Service (MI5), the Secret
Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). The
Committee also scrutinises the work of other parts of the UK intelligence community, including the Joint Intelligence Organisation and the National Security Secretariat in the Cabinet Office; Defence Intelligence in the Ministry of Defence; and the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism in the Home Office.
The Government’s response can be found here.
The Government have released statistics concerning the use of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 for the quarter to December 2018. The statistics include numbers of arrests and stop and searches as well as outcomes.
Source: gov.uk
Police Horizon Scanning 