Rights & Security International (RSI) is continuing expose and address the harmful impacts of ‘Prevent’, the UK’s ‘counter-extremism’ strategy, which has a long history of leading to discrimination against British Muslims – including children. As RSI and other organisations have documented, Prevent likely violates a wide range of human rights protected under UK and international law; it may also breach other laws, such as data protection law. Recently, RSI has made substantial progress on addressing the racial and religious discrimination caused by Prevent.
We welcome any organisation interested in these issues to reach out to us.
Uncovering information about the Home Office’s and the police’s poor data handling practices
Following our freedom of information requests, the Metropolitan Police, National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Home Office have given us information about how they store Prevent-related data about people, showing that they have been unable to follow through on a government commitment to monitor Prevent for discriminatory impacts. Specifically, we have:
- Shone a light on potential stereotyping. Supported by criminologist Dr. Zin Derfoufi, we revealed that officials are making their own judgments about an individual’s race or ethnicity, and that individuals identified as Asian or associated with ‘Islamist-related’ concerns may be subjected to disproportionate scrutiny compared to people from other backgrounds.
- Exposed the police’s messy handling of Prevent-related data. Covered by the Guardian, our investigation into the data the National Police Chiefs’ Council holds in a centralised database on individuals referred to Prevent uncovered a significant problem: since 2015, police have been collecting data about the race/ethnicity of people referred to Prevent in some cases, but not nearly enough to make an equality impact assessment possible. In nearly two-thirds of cases, data about race/ethnicity is missing or stored in a way that, according to the NPCC, makes it difficult to retrieve. In fact, the NPCC told us it would take them over 1,350 working days – five years – to collate the data they might hold about the race of people referred to the programme. We are continuing to pursue this issue of apparently haphazard gathering of sensitive personal data for police records.
- Told the Home Secretary to change Prevent data collection practices. In an open letter to the Home Secretary, RSI – alongside a range of human rights, racial justice and digital rights organisations – has called for an investigation into the messy data handling we have exposed.
Scrutinising the independence of the Independent Review of Prevent
We have:
- Pushed back against the Independent Review’s conclusions. RSI has critically addressed the Review’s shortcomings, highlighting its lack of engagement with violence prevention professionals, doctors and psychologists. We have also pointed out that the Review disproportionately focused on so-called ‘Islamist extremism’, asking the government to repress people who do not advocate for violence, while neglecting the risks associated with far-right or misogynist ideologies. This approach risks perpetuating Islamophobia by disproportionately targeting Muslim communities.
- Brought to light potential Home Office interference in the Independent Review. Our freedom of information request uncovered emails that raise our concerns about a real degree of input from the Home Office into the review, raising serious questions about the impartiality of the final report. We continue to pursue the issue of possible government interference in the Review through other freedom of information requests.
Monitored Prevent surveillance tactics in schools
We have raised concerns over the Metropolitan Police’s plans to bolster intelligence-gathering in schools amid the ongoing conflict in Palestine and Israel. We fear that strategies such as this will impede children’s rights to freely express themselves. We continue to call into question government measures that may unduly encroach upon lawful free expression, particularly when those measures may disproportionately impact particular communities.
We continue to work closely with our partners as we shape our Prevent work, whilst continuing to push back against the oppressive and discriminatory strategy with the ultimate goal of compelling the government to scrap it.
RSI is funded through the Foundation’s Strengthening Civil Society programme.
