Legal interstices of Counter-Terrorism Policy

The Approach

Counter terrorism, the Prevent Policy and radicalisation

Lowe has given testimony to the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on a Fit and Healthy Childhood and the working group’s report on Positive Mental Health Through Movement. The objective is to propose reforms in policy / legislation regarding the safeguarding of children and young persons. Lowe’s input is on the Prevent Policy and the impact extremists have in radicalising children and young persons via the internet and social media sites. Together with other members of the Committee, Lowe will be compiling evidence and preparing a report in late 2021.

Lowe has also appraised the effectiveness of individuals and organisations tasked with monitoring and ‘policing’ Prevent (Lowe, 2019). There have been two main areas of enquiry:

• The development of new training tools for those formally involved in supervising Prevent that allows a more nuanced understanding of the drivers and responses to radicalisation
• Promoting the practice of proactive but informal community engagement with young people that might be susceptible to radicalisation

Key research findings:

• Understanding and delineating speech that, although protected under the right to freedom of expression exceeds established legal parameters, from that which can amount to extremism that glorifies or promotes violence
• Identifying and evaluating the obligation of the statutory duty under section 26 of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 on persons involved in education
• Understanding that Prevent needs reform to effectively engage with various forms of extremism, including the Islamist and far-right narrative

Surveillance of electronic communications

Lowe’s research assesses several technologically based problems facing British law enforcement agencies, including use of the internet; the existence of ‘darknet’; untraceable internet telephone calls and messages; smart encrypted device direct messaging applications; and commercially available encryption software.

Key research findings:

• The ‘bulk powers’ of digital surveillance introduced by the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 has and the new legislative safeguards introduced are potentially incompatible with international human rights standards.

The Impact

Counter terrorism, the Prevent Policy and radicalisation:

Lowe’s research on the Prevent Policy has impacted in terms of policy, practice and training. He has been involved in assisting various agencies related to the UK’s Prevent policy since 2014. Since he has been employed at Leeds Law School from March 2019, Lowe has made significant impact contribution in three areas:

Policy reform

His research findings have informed policy reform initiatives concerning Prevent. As far as the 2019 Independent Review of Prevent, Lord Carlile identifies the import “of the research he has been conducting in relation to the UK’s Prevent strategy... Dr Lowe will continue to be of value to the Review”.

Practice

A symposium entailed ‘Prevent Strategy: helping vulnerable people drawn towards terrorism or another layer of state surveillance?’ was held at Leeds Beckett University (LBU) in September 2019 bringing together academics and practitioners. One initiative that has developed post-symposium is the creation of a working group with Oldham and Tameside local authorities, to develop an Assessment Support Centre that is involved in engaging young people who might be susceptible to radicalisation in positive social engagement. The convenor of the working group, Phillip Arnold, Assistant CEO of The New Bridge Group of Schools in Oldham, states: “Dr Lowe brings his research into the Prevent strategy into practice with the Working Group, where he assists in two areas, relationship management and dialogue. Lowe’s working forms, “helping staff confidence in challenging extremist views with a counter narrative...and effective re-engagement of vulnerable young people within society”. Two key outcomes have been identified. This project has engendered staff confidence in challenging extremist views with a counter narrative. It has also reinforced the importance of counter narratives as effective mechanisms to develop a dialogue and re-engage vulnerable young people within society.

Training

Lowe has applied his research findings and extensive experience of training in law enforcement settings to work with LBU colleagues in developing a Hydra training project. This has been designed to facilitate changes in training policy as far as Prevent for educators in the North East region and for police officers related to their statutory responsibilities under section 26 Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015. Hydra is an immersive simulation training system that provides learning scenarios focusing on decision-making skills and LBU is distinctive in terms of a university-supported Hydra training suite. In addition to LBU colleagues, the Home Office North East Regional Prevent HE/FE Co-Ordinator, Christopher Sybenga and Detective Superintendent Matthew Davison, North East Regional Co-Ordinator for Prevent (Police) have inputted from their professional practice. The Hydra training programme on Prevent was piloted in February 2020. After making the suggested modifications that materialised at the pilot sessions, the aim is to showcase this training programme to a range of potential stakeholders at an event in 2020.

This hands-on project has provided a more acculturated and nuanced training programme as far as awareness and application of this duty to established training as to this legal duty. Christopher Sybenga states that Lowe’s research portfolio has contributed to develop “a ‘hands-on’ practical scenario-based training where delegates have to work through a series of practical issues...a significant number of universities’ academic staff are against having this duty imposed on them due to the misconception that the duty is an obligation to spy on students and colleagues, whereas the safeguarding element of this statutory duty has been marginalised. With this in mind, I can see the Hydra Prevent programme going some way to allaying this suspicion”. Additionally, Lord Carlile has recognised that this Hydra project could be applied nationally as “an example of good practice”.

SURVEILLANCE OF COMMUNICATIONS:

The work of Lowe and Hale-Ross, both independently and collaboratively, has focused on evaluating whether UK counter terrorism legislation that empowers state surveillance of electronic communications and the ability of the state to intercept and access encrypted forms of social media platforms, can be reconciled with international human rights standard. Lord Carlile has highlighted that the work of Hale-Ross (2019) has been impactful in identifying that the objectives of UK counter terrorism law with “the multiple levels of scrutiny applied to interception and investigation ... can be achieved in a developing human rights context”.