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My Lords, the Minister referred to the counterterrorism strategy. He will be aware that the Prevent strand of Contest has had very difficult and sometimes very poor press, perhaps as a result of misinterpretation of its objectives. Will the Minister tell us whether the intention is now to focus on safeguarding vulnerable individuals who are liable to be seduced by some of the materials that are available online and therefore prevent them being drawn into violent extremism of one sort or another? This should be a safeguarding approach rather than one that is seen as the pursuit of potential terrorists.
My Lords, the Minister referred to the counterterrorism strategy. He will be aware that the Prevent strand of Contest has had very difficult and sometimes very poor press, perhaps as a result of misinterpretation of its objectives. Will the Minister tell us whether the intention is now to focus on safeguarding vulnerable individuals who are liable to be seduced by some of the materials that are available online and therefore prevent them being drawn into violent extremism of one sort or another? This should be a safeguarding approach rather than one that is seen as the pursuit of potential terrorists.
I hope I can help my noble friend by saying that there is a dual approach to this. Safeguarding is obviously important. There are many young people who can be drawn into potential terrorist activity at a very early age, and it is important that we treat those people as young people but also recognise the influences given to them. The Government’s Prevent strategy is also about making sure that we identify where serious intervention is needed to prevent potential radicalisation. We keep all those options open. That is important because we do not want to create a cadre of future terrorists, be they from whatever wing of terrorism activity. I have seen and witnessed young people who have had extreme right-wing, Islamist and other forms of radicalisation against gay and homosexual individuals. None of that is acceptable, and we need to identify how we best intervene to prevent that activity occurring.