Fears that the government’s anti-radicalisation strategy, Prevent, is used as a “trawling exercise” will be reinforced by revelations that police forces have been storing personal details of all those referred to the scheme in a database without the knowledge or consent of the individuals involved, the shadow security minister has said.
The National Police Prevent Case Management (PCM) database is managed centrally by national counter-terrorism policing headquarters and is compiled by all police forces across the England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to documents sent to the human rights group Liberty and seen by the Guardian.
The directory includes personal details of the individuals referred to Prevent and the reasons for the referral, and both are added without notifying the person involved.
The stated aim of Prevent, a voluntary programme, is to divert people from terrorism before they offend, and crucially it deals with individuals who have yet to cross the criminality threshold. About nine in 10 referrals result in the individual leaving the process without facing further action or being signposted to alternative services.
Police chiefs said the database was legally compliant, and recording referrals ensured accountability and allowed forces to monitor “when vulnerabilities are increasing”.
But Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow minister for security, said the revelations raised many serious questions, including the extent of the database, how the information has been used and by whom.
“It will reinforce the worst fears of many campaigners concerned that Prevent can be used as a trawling exercise and that people, including children, who have committed no crime are regarded as suspects,” he said.
“This underlines the need for a comprehensive, independent review of the Prevent programme, and the government’s appointment of Lord Carlile as a reviewer falls well short of that. Labour in government will conduct a robust review of Prevent and formulate a counter-terror programme which can command the confidence of all communities across the country.”
Any rank of police officer or staff can access the database but users must be Prevent practitioners, who are vetted and given training prior to access. Chief constables are the designated data controllers within their respective forces.
External agencies are able to request information from the database. It is not known how many requests have been granted or to whom.
Forces that responded to Liberty’s request for information said all referrals were added at the time of receipt, and official statistics show 21,042 individuals have been referred in the three years to March 2018 alone.
In the most recent year available, 2017-18, a total of 7,318 individuals were subject to a referral, of whom 3,096 (42%) left the process requiring no further action and 3,466 left the process and were signposted to alternative services.
The majority – 4,144 (57%) – were aged 20 years or under. Within this figure, 2,009 were under 15 and 2,135 were aged 15 to 20.
A spokesman for the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “The public would expect the police to maintain professional records of those individuals referred for support as potential victims of radicalisation. This is no different to the way we record other forms of supportive safeguarding activity such as child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse or human trafficking.
“Good records ensure we are accountable, allow us to understand when vulnerabilities are increasing, and ensure we act consistently and proportionately, only taking action in those cases where our support is necessary. If we did not maintain proper, legally compliant records, the public would rightly have far less confidence in the police.”