Community hub
Recent from talks
Contribute something to knowledge base
Content stats: 0 posts, 0 articles, 0 media, 0 notes
Members stats: 0 subscribers, 0 contributors, 0 moderators, 0 supporters
Subscribers
Supporters
Contributors
Moderators
Hub AI
CONTEST AI simulator
(@CONTEST_simulator)
Hub AI
CONTEST AI simulator
(@CONTEST_simulator)
CONTEST
CONTEST is the United Kingdom's counter-terrorism strategy, first developed by Sir David Omand and the Home Office in early 2003 as the immediate response to 9/11, and a revised version was made public in 2006. Further revisions were published on 24 March 2009, July 2011, June 2018, and July 2023. The aim of the strategy is "to reduce the risk to the UK and its interests overseas from terrorism so that people can go about their lives freely and with confidence."
The UK government's definition of "Terrorism" is set out within the Terrorism Act 2000, and the Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) unit has been set up to implement CONTEST.
CONTEST is composed of the "four Ps" – Prevent, Pursue, Protect, and Prepare – which aim to reduce terrorism at all levels through: Preventing more people from being radicalised; Pursuing suspects operationally and legally; Protecting the public through security measures, and Preparing to manage the response to mitigate the impact of an inevitable attack. Prevent is the most prominent and controversial of these. It includes a duty ("the Prevent duty") for public bodies such as schools and universities to identify and refer those displaying signs of potential extremist or terrorist activity, and a programme ("Channel") to de-radicalise such individuals. It has been criticised by civil rights groups and British Muslims for stigmatising Muslim communities, as well as by conservative pundits for identifying right-wing extremists as potential terrorists.
The August 2018 revision reportedly puts more focus on ways of prevention and how to best alert the public to terrorist threats. In an article written for The Observer, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated that the strategy is "recognised by our allies to be world-leading in its wide-ranging nature, [and] leaves us better prepared and strengthened in our ability to ensure all peace-loving people of this country can live normally, with confidence and free from fear."
In March 2019, the Court of Appeal found that the Prevent guidance on inviting controversial speakers at universities was unlawfully unbalanced and must be rewritten.
In January 2020, The Guardian reported that Extinction Rebellion, the climate emergency campaign group promoted by Greta Thunberg, had been included on an official list of extremist organisations whose members should be reported to the authorities. The South East Counter Terrorism Unit later said that after review, the document was being withdrawn.
An independent review of Prevent led by Lord Carlile was announced in August 2019 as part of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. However it was dropped after a petitioner complained about his potential bias because he had spoken out in favour of the strategy prior to his review, and the Home Office vacated the initiative. In January 2021, the Patel Home Office appointed Sir William Shawcross to head the review of the Prevent programme. On 20 February 2024 the Shawcross review was published in final form. At the time Shawcross found that some recommendations had not been implemented and the public was at risk. The scheme had repeatedly "failed" to identify attackers, and there was a "sense of lost purpose". In the wake of the October 7 massacre in Israel certain segments of the British population were frightened, especially those concerned with a "dangerous" surge in anti-semitism. The Cooper Home Office said 30 of 34 recommendations had been implemented and the remaining balance were in the works. Shawcross said that staff within Prevent were overly concerned with "tackling the rise in Right-wing terrorism", to the detriment of other dangers. He questioned the allocation of resource in Prevent and was troubled by the disparity with MI5's allocation, which stood at 75% caseload was focused on Islamist threats whereas one in ten staff of Prevent were focused on the same issue.
Prevent is a key strategy in the UK's counter terrorism frameworks which CONTEST introduced following the 7/7 London terrorist attacks in 2005. Prevent aims to reduce the threat of terrorism by preventing people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. It claims to be comprehensive in its aims to deradicalise and rehabilitate vulnerable people.
CONTEST
CONTEST is the United Kingdom's counter-terrorism strategy, first developed by Sir David Omand and the Home Office in early 2003 as the immediate response to 9/11, and a revised version was made public in 2006. Further revisions were published on 24 March 2009, July 2011, June 2018, and July 2023. The aim of the strategy is "to reduce the risk to the UK and its interests overseas from terrorism so that people can go about their lives freely and with confidence."
The UK government's definition of "Terrorism" is set out within the Terrorism Act 2000, and the Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) unit has been set up to implement CONTEST.
CONTEST is composed of the "four Ps" – Prevent, Pursue, Protect, and Prepare – which aim to reduce terrorism at all levels through: Preventing more people from being radicalised; Pursuing suspects operationally and legally; Protecting the public through security measures, and Preparing to manage the response to mitigate the impact of an inevitable attack. Prevent is the most prominent and controversial of these. It includes a duty ("the Prevent duty") for public bodies such as schools and universities to identify and refer those displaying signs of potential extremist or terrorist activity, and a programme ("Channel") to de-radicalise such individuals. It has been criticised by civil rights groups and British Muslims for stigmatising Muslim communities, as well as by conservative pundits for identifying right-wing extremists as potential terrorists.
The August 2018 revision reportedly puts more focus on ways of prevention and how to best alert the public to terrorist threats. In an article written for The Observer, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated that the strategy is "recognised by our allies to be world-leading in its wide-ranging nature, [and] leaves us better prepared and strengthened in our ability to ensure all peace-loving people of this country can live normally, with confidence and free from fear."
In March 2019, the Court of Appeal found that the Prevent guidance on inviting controversial speakers at universities was unlawfully unbalanced and must be rewritten.
In January 2020, The Guardian reported that Extinction Rebellion, the climate emergency campaign group promoted by Greta Thunberg, had been included on an official list of extremist organisations whose members should be reported to the authorities. The South East Counter Terrorism Unit later said that after review, the document was being withdrawn.
An independent review of Prevent led by Lord Carlile was announced in August 2019 as part of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. However it was dropped after a petitioner complained about his potential bias because he had spoken out in favour of the strategy prior to his review, and the Home Office vacated the initiative. In January 2021, the Patel Home Office appointed Sir William Shawcross to head the review of the Prevent programme. On 20 February 2024 the Shawcross review was published in final form. At the time Shawcross found that some recommendations had not been implemented and the public was at risk. The scheme had repeatedly "failed" to identify attackers, and there was a "sense of lost purpose". In the wake of the October 7 massacre in Israel certain segments of the British population were frightened, especially those concerned with a "dangerous" surge in anti-semitism. The Cooper Home Office said 30 of 34 recommendations had been implemented and the remaining balance were in the works. Shawcross said that staff within Prevent were overly concerned with "tackling the rise in Right-wing terrorism", to the detriment of other dangers. He questioned the allocation of resource in Prevent and was troubled by the disparity with MI5's allocation, which stood at 75% caseload was focused on Islamist threats whereas one in ten staff of Prevent were focused on the same issue.
Prevent is a key strategy in the UK's counter terrorism frameworks which CONTEST introduced following the 7/7 London terrorist attacks in 2005. Prevent aims to reduce the threat of terrorism by preventing people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. It claims to be comprehensive in its aims to deradicalise and rehabilitate vulnerable people.