Our response to counter-terrorism is built on an approach that unites the public and private sectors, communities, citizens and overseas partners around the single purpose to leave no safe space for terrorists to recruit or act. Our strategy, CONTEST, is the framework that enables us to organise this work to counter all forms of terrorism. CONTEST’s overarching aim remains to reduce the risk to the UK and its citizens and interests overseas from terrorism, so that our people can go about their lives freely and with confidence.

Strategic context

The threat from terrorism, globally and in the UK, is higher than when we last published CONTEST in 2011. The UK is facing a number of different and enduring terrorist threats. The increased threat has mainly been caused by the rise of Daesh and the creation of its cult-like “Caliphate”, combined with the persistent threat from Al Qa’ida. Daesh has been constrained militarily by the actions of a global coalition in which the UK is playing a leading role, which has eroded most of its territory and severely degraded its central propaganda apparatus. But Daesh’s ability to direct, enable and inspire attacks still represents the most significant global terrorist threat, including to the UK and our people and interests overseas. Daesh’s methods are already being copied by new and established terror groups.

Using pernicious, divisive messaging and amplifying perceived grievances, Daesh and Al Qa’ida exploit the internet to promote warped alternative narratives, urging extremists within our own communities to subvert our way of life through simple, brutal violence. They deem anyone who does not share their rejectionist views as a legitimate target and any method of murder acceptable. They cynically groom the vulnerable and the young to join their movement, inspiring people within our own communities to commit senseless acts of violence. The recent attacks across Europe and the UK have also served to highlight the diversity and accessibility of methods by which individuals who are vulnerable to these radicalising messages can commit attacks.

This has had a profound effect on the threat to the UK, seen so starkly through the attacks in 2017. The current UK National Threat Level is SEVERE, meaning an attack is highly likely. Islamist terrorism is the foremost terrorist threat to the UK. Extreme right-wing terrorism is a growing threat. In December 2016, the then Home Secretary proscribed the first extreme right-wing group, National Action, under the Terrorism Act 2000. The Government took further action in September 2017, proscribing Scottish Dawn and National Socialist Anti-Capitalist Action as aliases of National Action. Northern Ireland related terrorism remains a serious threat, particularly in Northern Ireland itself.

In 2017, we saw a significant shift in the terrorist threat to the UK, with five attacks in London and Manchester that led to the deaths of 36 innocent people and injured many more. We responded decisively, rapidly adapting our priorities and capabilities, to break the momentum of these attacks. Since last year’s Westminster attack, the police and the security and intelligence agencies have successfully foiled a further 12 Islamist plots, and since 2017, have disrupted four extreme right-wing plots.

However, we will not always be successful in stopping attacks. Most future terrorist plots in the UK will employ simple methods that can be developed with ease and at speed. Terrorists still have the intent to also mount complex, potentially more destructive attacks, probably targeting crowded places or the global aviation system. The general availability and use of encrypted communications allows terrorists to disguise their plans better.

Terrorists have not, cannot and will not change our way of life. In accordance with our guiding principles, we will continue to respond systematically and proportionately but with increased transparency and oversight to assure the public of their privacy as well as their public safety.

Our response

This updated and strengthened CONTEST strategy reflects the findings of a fundamental review of all aspects of counter-terrorism, to ensure we have the best response to the heightened threat in coming years. The review found CONTEST to be well-organised and comprehensive and that we should update our approach within the tried and tested strategic framework of four ‘P’ work strands:

• Prevent: to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

• Pursue: to stop terrorist attacks.
• Protect: to strengthen our protection against a terrorist attack.
• Prepare: to mitigate the impact of a terrorist attack.

However, the review concluded that a change in our approach within this framework would increase our ability to counter the shift in threat. This will include a step-change in our domestic investigative capabilities through implementing the recommendations of MI5 and CT Policing’s Operational Improvement Review.

We will disrupt terrorist threats in the UK earlier to take account of the scale of the threat and the speed at which plots are now developing. New counter-terrorism legislation will underpin our approach, ensuring the police and Crown Prosecution Service have the powers they need to enable intervention at an earlier stage in investigations, leading to prosecutions for terrorism offences, backed up by longer prison sentences and stronger management of terrorist offenders after their release.

Last year’s attacks in London and Manchester highlighted both the challenge of detecting individuals who may be inspired to commit terrorist acts in the UK, and the pace at which plots can move to acts of violence. This places a renewed importance on our understanding of those individuals who are vulnerable to radicalisation or who are (or have been) of interest to the police and the security and intelligence agencies due to their possible links to terrorist-related activities, but who are not currently the subject of any active investigations. We will share information more widely and support more local interventions with individuals in our own communities who are being groomed or incited to commit or support acts of terrorism. New multi-agency approaches at the local level – initially in London, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester – will enable MI5 and Counter-Terrorism Policing to share more information with a broader range of partners, including government departments, Devolved Administrations, and local authorities. By alerting a greater number of agencies to individuals of potential concern, we will improve our ability to assess the risk they pose whilst also being able to bring to bear a broader, larger set of local interventions, including to safeguard those at risk of radicalisation or to ensure those who have supported or been involved in terrorist-related activities disengage.

We will seek a more integrated relationship with the private sector both to better protect our economic infrastructure and to scale our ability to tackle terrorism. We will jointly with industry improve security at venues in the UK, gain faster alerts to suspicious purchases and design out vulnerabilities in our infrastructure or in products that terrorists exploit. We will take robust action to ensure there are no safe places for terrorists online, and ensure we have the critical access we need to information on their communications. We will seek more investment in technologies that automatically identify and remove terrorist content before it is accessible to all.

We will prioritise strengthening the resilience of local communities to terrorism as they are at the forefront of our response, in particular those where the threat from terrorism and radicalisation is highest. Our support to British citizens affected by terrorism at home and overseas remains a top priority.

Overseas we remain committed to the Global Coalition’s campaign against Daesh, to remove its control of territory, degrade further its media capabilities and disrupt key senior leaders and networks. We are also committed to efforts to degrade Al Qa’ida and its affiliates. We will take the lead on international efforts to improve counter-terrorism globally, through Ministerially-led campaigns on aviation security and preventing terrorist use of the internet. Terrorism also threatens British businesses operating globally and broader UK interests in stability, prosperity, governance, human rights and development work. Alongside our duty to protect British citizens is a strong determination to protect UK businesses and their assets.

Our four ‘P’ national work strands will coalesce into a single local or overseas response as we focus on improving frontline integration of our capabilities and people. Over the next three years we will take forward the following priorities under each work strand:

Prevent

To safeguard and support those vulnerable to radicalisation, to stop them from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism, we will:

• Focus our activity and resources in those locations where the threat from terrorism and radicalisation is highest.
• Expand our Desistance and Disengagement Programme with an immediate aim over the next 12 months to more than double the number of individuals receiving rehabilitative interventions.
• Develop a series of multi-agency pilots to trial methods to improve our understanding of those at risk of involvement in terrorism and enable earlier intervention.
• Focus our online activity on preventing the dissemination of terrorist material and building strong counter-terrorist narratives in order to ensure there are no safe places for terrorists online.
• Build stronger partnerships with communities, civil society groups, public sector institutions and industry to improve Prevent delivery.
• Re-enforce safeguarding at the heart of Prevent to ensure our communities and families are not exploited or groomed into following a path of violent extremism.

Pursue

To stop terrorist attacks happening in this country and against UK interests overseas we will:

• Implement a step-change in our domestic investigative capabilities through implementing the recommendations of MI5 and CT Policing’s Operational Improvement Review.
• Introduce new counter-terrorism legislation to disrupt terrorist threats in the UK earlier, taking account of the scale of the threat and the speed at which plots are now developing.
• As set out in in the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, we are recruiting and training over 1,900 additional staff across the security and intelligence agencies.
• Develop a series of multi-agency pilots to trial ways to improve information sharing and enrich our understanding of the threat at the local level, including of closed and closing subjects of interest.
• Bring foreign fighters to justice in accordance with due legal process if there is evidence that crimes have been committed, regardless of their nationality.
• Maintain our use of enhanced legislative tools to target and disrupt terrorist finance.
• Ensure we maintain our global reach to disrupt those that directly threaten the UK or UK interests.
• Ensure strong independent oversight of our counter-terrorism work, including publishing annual reports by the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, the Biometrics Commissioner and the Investigatory Powers Commissioner.

Protect

To strengthen our protection against a terrorist attack in the UK or against our interests overseas, and so reduce our vulnerability, we will:

• Collate and analyse greater volumes of high quality data to enhance our ability to target known and previously unknown persons and goods of potential counterterrorism concern.
• Maintain the UK at the forefront of developing world leading screening and detection technologies at the border, including behavioural detection, new detection techniques, data analytics and machine learning.
• Target the insider threat by strengthening information-sharing about those working in sensitive environments in airports, to ensure that persons of concern do not have access to restricted environments.
• Further strengthen security and resilience across the UK’s transport network and other parts of our critical national infrastructure that keep our country running and provide essential services.
• Work in partnership with the aviation industry and international partners to deliver robust and sustainable aviation security in the UK and overseas.
• Improve security at crowded places through closer, more effective working with a wider range of local authority and private sector responsible partners.
• Enhance capabilities to detect terrorist activity involving Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) material and their precursors and to control and safeguard these materials.

Prepare

To mitigate the impact of a terrorist incident, by bringing any attack to an end rapidly and recovering from it, we will:

• Maintain our investment in the capabilities of the emergency services in order to deliver a coordinated and effective response to terrorist attacks.
• Ensure the UK is resilient and ready to respond in a proportionate and effective manner to a wide range of CBRNE threats.
• Fully embed the Joint Emergency Service Interoperability Principles across the emergency services by 2020, to ensure that they can work together effectively in response to a terrorist attack.
• Regularly test and exercise the multi-agency capabilities required to respond to, and recover from, a wide range of terrorist attacks.
• Improve support arrangements for victims of terrorism to ensure a comprehensive and coordinated response.

Terrorists know no boundaries and what they do overseas manifests itself in the UK. We will prioritise our efforts in areas of highest risk to British people and interests, whilst maintaining our ability to reach and disrupt those who would seek to harm directly the UK and our interests. Given the increasingly dispersed nature of the threat, we will focus well-targeted capability building to help partners tackle shared threats and build their resilience. We will ensure UK citizens are aware of risks overseas and know how to react if they are involved in an incident. We will respond quickly to support UK victims. We have also put particular emphasis on raising global aviation security standards and tackling terrorist use of the internet as these global risks affect our security daily and directly.

We expect the threat to diversify and evolve as it has done in recent years. We will continually assess the effectiveness of our actions, and be flexible in adapting our approach. This will involve piloting more and different approaches and systematic scenario planning against future threats.

We have taken a three year horizon for this new CONTEST. Aggregated together, our comprehensive strategic framework, our present formidable range of capabilities funded by spending more than £2 billion per year, combined with the new priorities, approach and planned new capabilities set out below, will ensure the UK’s response to the heightened threat is effective in reducing the risk from terrorism to the UK and our citizens, communities, businesses and interests, at home and overseas.