Speeches and Statements
Lord West's speech at the Govnet conference
Lord West delivered this keynote speech at the Govnet Conference on Homeland and Border Security in July 2008.
The protection and security of the UK is always on my mind. Over the past year as Minister for Security and CT in the Home Office I have been hugely impressed by the hard work and dedication of the men and women in our police and security services and of the many others - in government, private and voluntary sectors - who contribute to the safety of the UK and the wider international community. Countering Terrorism is not just about the work of the police, security service and intelligence agencies - it relies on everyone to play their part.
Nature of the threat
Unfortunately, the threat to the United Kingdom from terrorism remains at ‘Severe’, a situation that we would all like to see improving. Every week the Police and Security Service are involved numerous counter-terrorist investigations, many of which pose a real threat to life.
The number of people who have recently been convicted for terrorism provides a sobering illustration of the current level of terrorist activity in the UK.
In just the first 6 months of this year, 32 people have been convicted in 10 separate terrorist cases, with 11 of these individuals pleading guilty. Last year, 36 individuals were convicted in 14 significant terrorist cases, with 21 of these offering guilty pleas. There are many more terrorist cases scheduled to come to court - over the next 18 months they will be almost non-stop.
These figures are testament to the severity of this threat, and also underline the considerable success that the police, security service and agencies have had in detecting, disrupting and prosecuting suspected terrorists.
National security strategy
The primary duty of the Government is the safety of the British people and the security of the nation. The nature of the threats and risks that we face - not just from terrorism - have changed dramatically in recent decades, and have demanded innovative approaches.
That is why, in March, the Prime Minister published the first National Security Strategy for the United Kingdom, setting out principles that guide our approach to national security - based upon our core values of human rights, rule of law, tolerance and opportunity for all.
The strategy identifies the diverse threats and risks to our security that we face - from terrorism to climate change, from organised crime to civil emergencies - and the Government’s approach to addressing the challenges they pose, with a single overarching objective of “protecting the United Kingdom and its interests, enabling its people to go about their daily lives freely and with confidence, in a more secure, stable, just and prosperous world.”
The National Security Strategy puts these threats into a broader global context and explains how each contributes to our national security as a whole.
So while the Government has a duty to take the lead in matters of national security, an important aim of the National Security Strategy is therefore to increase public knowledge and awareness of our security priorities and policies, so that each one of us can understand the risks we face and plan accordingly to play our part.
National risk register
Furthermore, as part of the Government’s commitment to enable communities to prepare better for the emergencies they may face, we shall shortly be publishing the first National Risk Register, setting out the sorts of hazards and threats that may have a national impact and require a national response.
This first National Risk Register will provide advice and sources of further guidance for organisations, businesses and communities to enable better preparation for the consequences of significant disruption to normal life, and will complement the Community Risk Registers produced by Local Resilience Forums which set out the particular hazards for which local communities can and ought to prepare.
CT Strategy - CONTEST
Of course, the complex nature of the new challenges identified in the National Security Strategy means that they don’t have simple solutions. International terrorism poses a particularly challenging problem for the Government and those dealing with it - recent plots have been characterised by increasing technological and logistical complexity. Those involved are often of many nationalities and speak many languages, are in different locations around the world and use false identities, encrypted communications and multiple email addresses and phone numbers.
This, coupled with the terrible human consequences of terrorist actions and the imperative to stop them by intervening early - often before sufficient admissible evidence for a prosecution has been gathered - puts enormous pressure on the police and intelligence agencies and makes striking the right balance between public safety and civil liberties a particularly sensitive and challenging pursuit.
However, with careful and continuing calibration, I firmly believe that we have managed to find an equilibrium which protects “the security of all and the liberties of each,” as the Prime Minister said recently.
Central to our CT response is our counter terrorism strategy, CONTEST, which is also a core element of the National Security Strategy.
CONTEST has four main work streams, each with a clear objective:
- Pursue - to stop terrorist attacks
- Protect - strengthening our protection against terrorist attacks
- Prepare - where we cannot stop an attack, to mitigate its impact
- Prevent - stopping people becoming terrorists or supporting violent extremism
Since its inception in 2003, CONTEST has evolved, in keeping with the changing threat. However, the events of August 2006 [the alleged airline plot] precipitated a recognition by ministers and professionals alike that we needed to raise our game, break out of specialist ‘silos’, avoid being London-centric and ensure that lessons learned were being incorporated via a stronger central hub which would manage the development and delivery of a reinvigorated CONTEST.
Building on existing core capabilities, CONTEST has therefore become more flexible and dynamic, with a focus on cross-cutting areas, such as science, the internet and communications, and has a greater emphasis on local delivery. Progress is being measured against a new public service agreement, the reporting period for which began in April.
The journey from strategy to delivery is being facilitated by the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT) in the Home Office, which has brought new drive, more cohesion and greater strategic capacity to our fight against terrorism. It has also become a centre of excellence, with ‘in-house’ expertise across the wide range of policy areas that CONTEST incorporates.
OSCT has a role in promoting and encouraging effective collaborative working within and between departments and agencies, as well as between national and local jurisdictions. This is critical if we are to achieve our objectives.
The CONTEST Strategy, like the National Security Strategy, needs government, local partners - including the police and local authorities - and individual communities to work together to ensure success, in particular in the PREVENT and PROTECT strands.
West reviews
In fact, I should declare my particular interest in ‘PROTECT’. Following the attempted - and thankfully unsuccessful - attacks outside a nightclub in central London and at Glasgow airport last summer, the Prime Minister asked me to lead a review of the security arrangements in place for crowded places, critical national infrastructure and transport infrastructure across the UK.
As I started my review I was encouraged by how much work was already underway to increase levels of protective security in crowded places.
But there is always room for improvement - the key findings of my review were that:
- there was a need for a new risk-based strategic framework to reducing vulnerability of crowded places;
- we should focus efforts on reducing the vulnerability of the highest risk crowded places by working with private and public sector partners at the local level;
- and a new effort to “design in” counter terrorism protective security measures was needed, building on good practice from crime prevention
Since then, we have made good progress on my recommendations:
For the first time, we are introducing a standard way of assessing vulnerability and other relevant factors using a risk assessment matrix through the national network of police counter-terrorism security advisers. This will enable local partners to prioritise their work to reduce the vulnerability of crowded places to terrorist attack so that it is focused on those facing the highest risk. The risk assessment matrix will also help us measure progress over time.
Secondly, we will publish later this year a new strategic national framework to encourage greater partnership working at the local level between local authorities, other local partners and in particular businesses. This will help local partners to better understand their role to incorporate counter-terrorist security advice into their existing work to improve community safety.
We want to see strong relationships between businesses, the police and local authorities which recognise each others’ strengths and responsibilities. This is not only in the public interest, but also in your interests as protecting your staff and the assets vital to your operations makes good business sense.
And finally, we will publish later this year for consultation a counter terrorism supplement to the existing guidance Safer Places- the Planning System and Crime Prevention. This will be a practical guide as to how best to include counter terrorism measures into new developments at the design stage, while ensuring that they are of high design quality.
I want to engage closely with local government partners and the business community on my proposals. A two-day conference held at Wilton Park at the beginning of June consulted a range of stakeholders about our proposals. Feedback was very positive and confirmed that our approach is broadly right.
Hazardous substances
The Prime Minister also asked me to look at what more might be needed to strengthen security to protect against the use of hazardous substances for terrorist purposes.
We will shortly be reporting on the outcome of this review to Parliament. It would not be appropriate to pre-empt that announcement, but I can say that the review found that some excellent work has already been done to reduce the accessibility of hazardous substances to terrorists.
However, that is not to say we are complacent. More work is needed, and we are developing a programme of work to reduce further the accessibility of hazardous substances for terrorist purposes.
UK Border Agency
The security of our borders is a vital part of the broader counter-terrorism effort. So far, I have been hugely impressed by the new UK Borders Agency which was launched publicly at the beginning of April and is changing the nature of our border controls. It integrates the work of the Border and Immigration Agency, customs work at the border, and UK Visas, helping to improve the UK’s security through stronger border control whilst welcoming legitimate travellers and trade.
UKBA has a combined budget of over £2 billion, with 8,000 officers working in our ports and in 135 countries worldwide. And importantly, the Agency works in partnership with the 3,000 police officers operating at the border, 1,400 of whom are Special Branch officers dealing with national security and counter terrorism matters; the remainder with protective security and general policing.
UKBA and policing
Collaboration with the police at the border is critical to the success of the new agency. A senior police representative has been appointed to the board of the UK Border Agency to encourage clearer coordination and stronger participation from the police; and a new framework for inter-agency and joint cooperation was signed by the Association of Chief Police Officers and the UK Border Agency on 3rd April 2008.
In fact, we are shortly publishing a green paper on policing to seek views from the police service and others on the most appropriate policing structures to work alongside UKBA at the border.
There are a number of different policing models at the border which could operate at national, regional and ports level. One option is to create a separate national police border force in England and Wales that would focus on all aspects of security and law enforcement, under its own chief constable.
Another model, proposed by a former commissioner of the Met Police, Lord Stevens, has just been published [1 July] and proposes a ‘border protection service’ which incorporates the UKBA, police and other agencies operating at the border.
Once we have had an opportunity to consider all the responses to the green paper later this year we will be able to be in a position to make further decisions about the way police resources are used at the borders.
UKBA and counter-terrorism
We are determined to ensure that the new agency will make an effective contribution to CONTEST. Our border and migration controls already have a strong record in tackling terrorist threats, with 9 foreign nationals deported and over 300 excluded from the UK for fostering extremism and other counter-terrorism related reasons since 11 September 2001.
We have strengthened CT checks in our visa issuing processes and at UK ports and airports, and have introduced biometric checks for all visa applicants. We will introduce biometric ID cards for foreign nationals from the end of 2008. And we are introducing the e-Borders programme which, by 2014, will electronically screen all passengers as they check in and out of our country at ports and airports, giving us greater ability to track and intercept terrorist suspects as they travel.
By December this year, e-Borders will count the majority of foreign nationals travelling into and out of the UK. The operational prototype for the main e-Borders programme, SEMAPHORE, is already handling more than 30 million passenger movements per annum, and has greatly assisted a number of counter terrorism operations, as well as over 1,900 arrests for crimes including murder, rape and assault.
We will continue developing the counter-terrorism protection provided by our border, customs and migration controls. The 2008-2011 UK Border Agency business plan is committed to 'implementing a Counter-Terrorism strategy for the Agency from 2008'.
Terrorist Finance & Money Laundering
Another important area of work is that of terrorist finance, part of the PURSUE strand of CONTEST. Financing is fundamental to allowing terrorists to operate, but it also provides opportunities to thwart terrorist activity.
The Metropolitan Police’s National Terrorist Finance Investigation Unit is involved as a matter of course in every terrorist investigation. Their investigations routinely uncover huge amounts of information, which is often invaluable in establishing the link between individuals and acts of terror. The financial services industry provides an invaluable link by providing record keeping and reports of suspicious activity, which are vital to the success of any investigation.
Anti-money-laundering offences in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 are among the most widely drawn in the world, and replace and strengthen previous offences. Significantly, there is no need to prove the specific predicate offence from which any laundered proceeds came.
The financial action task force (FATF) commented in their recent evaluation of the UK that money laundering investigations, prosecutions and convictions all show a positive trend, each increasing substantially each year since the Act came into force in 2003.
As many of you will know the UK has held the presidency of the FATF for the past year. We have been successful in ensuring that FATF is more outward-looking, focusing on the right priorities and responsive to the emerging threats facing the financial system.
CT Bill
It would be disingenuous of me not to mention legislation. You may be aware of the current counter-terrorism bill - I will be taking it through the Lords where the second reading begins next week [on July 8], where I am sure there will be a full discussion of all the issues.
Of course, we need an effective and evolving body of counter-terrorist legislation to deal with the changing threat and to give the Police the tools they need to counter it. But I want to underline that legislation is just one part of a wide-ranging programme of work that HMG is undertaking to counter terrorism.
Prevent and fulfilment plan
Pursuing terrorists, protecting our national infrastructure, and preparing for the consequences of an attack are essential to security. We continue to develop our capability to match the threat. But only our work to prevent people being lured into violent extremism will defeat terrorism in the long term.
A major area of work since 2007 has been the refresh of our Prevent strategy. The new Prevent delivery plan, launched by the Home Secretary with the Secretary of State for the Department for Communities and Local Government on June 3, has five key objectives.
The first of these is to undermine the ideology of violent extremism, supporting mainstream Muslim voices – especially among our youth – to expose the weaknesses of Al Qaeda’s ‘single narrative’ and to reaffirm our commitment to universally shared values.
Violent extremists are actively on the look out for those who may be undergoing a change in their lives and could be open to approaches, whether in prisons, colleges or on the internet. Our second objective is therefore to work with partners in these facilities to disrupt violent extremists and to help stop people being exploited.
We know that personal circumstances and individual life experiences can play a role in drawing people towards terrorism. As recent examples have shown, vulnerable young individuals can be exploited and recruited to the cause of violent extremism. Supporting these vulnerable individuals is the third objective of our PREVENT strategy.
And because we know that the speed someone can succumb and become an active proponent of violent extremist ideology can be very quick – sometimes only a few months – our fourth objective is to increase the resilience of our communities to extremist messages.
Our involvement overseas, such as Iraq or Afghanistan, is controversial for many people. Violent extremists use these examples of our involvement when recruiting others to their cause. But Al Qaeda has been killing innocent people of all nations and beliefs since the 1990s, and continues to kill people in countries which have nothing to do with Iraq or Afghanistan. We may disagree on certain issues, but no disagreement can justify the use of terror. That is why addressing grievances of Muslim communities and others is the fifth objective of Prevent.
It is important, too, that we use the right language in describing and addressing international terrorism. We need to communicate in a way that counters – rather than fuels – the terrorist narrative and helps to build co-operation between all sections of society who oppose the actions of violent extremists.
Conclusion
To conclude, we need to build more resilient enterprises and a resilient society where our values and freedoms can survive and thrive in the face of this complex and serious terrorist threat.
To do this, and to make sure that our response is proportionate and necessary, is an enormous challenge, but I am confident that we shall continue to succeed. By working together we shall ensure that violent extremists and terrorists find neither support nor sanctuary anywhere in the United Kingdom.
Thank you - I hope that you have an enjoyable and productive conference.
