Earlier this month, human rights organisation Liberty revealed that UK counter-terror police have been running a database that records personal data on all those who have been referred to the Home Office’s controversial Prevent programme. Whilst the ‘secret’ nature of the database is contested, the concerns raised by the revelation run much deeper, revealing a UK government approach to extremism that is inconsistent, harmful and subsumed under a smog of secrecy and confusion.
The Prevent database contains personal details of individuals from schools, colleges, universities, nurseries, hospitals, prisons and wider civil society that have been reported for signs of extremism under the UK Government’s 2015 ‘Prevent Duty’ – which legally compels public servants such as teachers, doctors and police to report on those under its care. Whilst the total number of individuals on the database is unknown, 7,318 individuals were subject to referral between April 2017 and March 2018 (with 21,042 referred to Prevent between 2015 and March 2018). Gracie Bradley, Liberty policy and campaigns manager, criticised the database as “utterly chilling that potentially thousands of people, including children, are on a secret government database because of what they’re perceived to think or believe”.
Prevent practitioners have defended the database, including Nik Adams, the UK’s National Coordinator for Prevent, who countered that “numerous public documents reference the ‘secret’ Prevent database”, and that this approach is “no different to recording child or domestic abuse concerns”. This was echoed by a National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesperson, who stated that he considered this “no different to the way we record other forms of supportive safeguarding activities such as child exploitation, domestic abuse or human trafficking”.
