20.10.15
Councils under new legal duty to tackle extremism, or Home Office will intervene
Whitehall has placed a new statutory duty on local authorities to take action in preventing people from being drawn into terrorism, and will review what powers it has to intervene when councils fail to act.
The rest of the public sector, including schools, NHS trusts and foundation trusts, police, probation services and prisons, are now also under the same legal duty.
A report due next year will also review these institutions, as well as the civil service and higher education colleges, to ensure they are safeguarded from the risk posed by entryism. The review will set out the identified risk and advise on how to protect against entryism by improving governance, inspection and whistle-blowing mechanisms.
The move is part of the government’s new counter-extremism strategy launched by prime minister David Cameron yesterday (19 October), which, most notoriously, will treat those with terrorist offence convictions like sex offenders by banning them from working with children.
Local authorities will receive clear guidance on the range of tools available to help tackle extremism, but the Home Office will look into how it can take over this duty if councils fail to hold their end up.
And councils will also be able to use more extreme powers in exceptional circumstances, all of which will be outlined in the guidance also sent to police and prosecutors.
These powers will include banning extremist organisations that promote hatred and draw people into extremism, restricting harmful activities of dangerous individuals, and restricting access to locations repeatedly used to support extremism.
They will come with strong safeguards to ensure they are only used in the most serious cases, such as when individuals or groups pose a real threat to the general safety of others. They will be highly judicially scrutinised and actions taken will require High Court approval.
Councils must now also work in partnership with the police to tackle local extremist issues and keep communities informed about their actions, complemented by a new legal duty to fully review any complaints about extremism.
Given that local authorities play a key role in protecting communities against extremism, the government argued that there is still more to be done to address these issues decisively and effectively.
In its counter-extremism strategy document, the Home Office cited a situation in Birmingham where Peter Clarke found the council failed to respond to extremism in schools under its control – despite evidence of behaviours by governing bodies that “did not appear to be in the best interests of the schools which they should serve”.
And beyond the direct threat of extremism, councils must also prevent isolation and segregation within communities. In Tower Hamlets, for example, the special election court ruled that mayor Luftur Rahman had breached election rules due to corrupt practices, such as vote-rigging, undue spiritual influence through local imams, and calling his Labour rival a racist.
In Rotherham, councillors failed to engage with the Pakistani-heritage community to address issues about the ethnicity of victims and perpetrators in the child sex abuse scandal – contributing to the “unforgiveable failure” of the council to properly tackle abuses.
The extension of counter-extremism powers also comes after a series of successful court order applications by councils to protect children at risk of travelling to join ISIL in Syria and Iraq, either as a choice or as part of a family.
Cameron said: “I have said before that defeating Islamist extremism will be the struggle of our generation. It is one of the biggest social problems we need to overcome.
“The government’s new counter-extremism strategy is a clear signal of the choice we have made to take on this poisonous ideology with resolve, determination and the goal of building a greater Britain.
“And a key part of this new approach is going further to protect children and vulnerable people from the risk of radicalisation by empowering parents and public institutions with all the advice, tools and practical support they need.”
(Top image c. Ben Stansall/PA Wire)