Introduction
The Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill, which is currently before Parliament, seeks to place a duty on specified authorities (identified in full in Schedule 3 to the Bill, and set out in the guidance) to ‘have due regard, in the exercise of its functions, to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’. Preventing people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism also requires challenge to extremist ideas where they are used to legitimise terrorism and are shared by terrorist groups. In carrying out this duty, the specified authorities must have regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State. A draft of that guidance is attached here, for consultation.
Purpose
The purpose of this consultation is to seek views on the draft guidance from: local authorities, schools, further and higher education institutions, the NHS, the police, prison and young offender institution governors, and providers of probation services. These bodies are listed in Schedule 3 and will be subject to the duty, when the provisions come into force. We would also be interested in hearing from other bodies working in these fields who feel that they should also be subject to the duty. We have included specific consultation questions throughout the document which we invite responses on. But more generally, we would like to hear views on the practicality of the guidance, what other measures could proportionately be taken to comply with the duty, any examples of existing good practice, and any opportunities and barriers to implementation.
Application in Scotland and Wales
The duty will extend to Scotland and Wales, but at present no Scottish authorities are listed in Schedule 3 to the Bill. Certain Welsh authorities are listed. Where English and Welsh authorities are different, however, the guidance has so far been drafted only to apply to the English authorities. It is the hope and intention of the UK Government that Scottish authorities will be included, and that this guidance will be applicable to authorities in England, Scotland and Wales. We expect that the broad principles and direction set out in this guidance will be applicable to authorities in Scotland and Wales, but fully appreciate that many of the details will not be, and that to reflect the particular circumstances of Wales and Scotland, certain sections will need to be differentiated.
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh HM Government Prevent duty guidance: a consultation
The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (the College) is pleased to respond to the HM Government consultation on the Prevent duty guidance. The College represents Fellows and Members across the UK, with around 50% of our UK membership working in the NHS in England.
The College has the following general comments regarding the section of the consultation on the health sector:
Healthcare workers are already alert to the issues described in this consultation and will contact the police or relevant authorities where they see a potential risk. The priority of healthcare workers is the delivery of high quality patient care, and the College queries the necessity of the burden of a new statutory duty where the use of existing channels for concerns are working well.
We would appreciate more detail on the health specified authorities in Schedule 3 to the Bill, which are listed as NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts, in terms of the inclusion of any other healthcare workers not in the direct employment of the NHS. The College believes that the listed health specified authorities would capture patient encounters in secondary care, however the potential for encounter between healthcare workers and patients is much wider in primary care, and we would appreciate confirmation of how the duty would apply across both primary and secondary care.
The College would also appreciate clarification over the training requirements for the new duty, as this would be a time consuming commitment for all staff who provide services to NHS patients to undergo. We would also appreciate clarification over the costs of the training and how this would be budgeted for within the limited resources of the current financial climate.
The College recognises that the duty will extend to Scotland and Wales, but at present no Scottish authorities are listed in Schedule 3 to the Bill. We would extend the same comments to the proposition of the inclusion of NHS Scotland as a listed authority and would expect further consultation with the Scottish Government on this subject.