Lord Sheikh:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they ensure that the “pursue” and “prevent” strands of their counterterrorist strategy stay separate in order not to collect unnecessarily data and personal information on Muslim citizens.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): The Government’s counterterrorism strategy, CONTEST, highlighted the importance of managing the connection between “pursue” and “prevent”.

Ensuring that the mutually supportive elements of the two strands are complementary and do not undermine one another requires effective information sharing. We expect the police and their partners to act on the risk they assess from the information available to them. This will determine whether a “prevent” or “pursue” response is more appropriate and which partner or agency should act to protect the public from harm. It is for the police to decide, on a case-by-case basis, if an identified risk should be considered for “pursue” action.

This does not entail the collection of unnecessary data and personal information on Muslim citizens. Information is gathered and shared by the police and local partners only when it is necessary, proportionate and lawful to do so.