Law reform charity brings tribunal challenge over police forces withholding Prevent data

The First Tier Tribunal has heard a Freedom of Information (FOI) appeal over the refusal from police forces to release anonymised data relating to the controversial anti-terrorism programme Prevent.

Law reform charity JUSTICE brought the legal challenge against the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) over its decisions to uphold refusals to release the data by West Midlands Police and Merseyside Police.

The Prevent programme is aimed at stopping people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

Part of the scheme involves referring people who are thought to be susceptible to radicalisation to the police, who then decide on whether to advance the referral to Prevent.

JUSTICE asked ten English police forces for anonymised figures on the ethnicity, age, and gender of the people they referred to the Prevent programme from 2017 to 2022. All forces denied the request.

The charity said that West Midlands, Merseyside, and eight other police forces responded with "near-identical" refusals on grounds of national security and law enforcement.

JUSTICE appealed to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), but the information watchdog refused to uphold its appeal, primarily on national security grounds.

The charity argued that the ICO and the police forces were wrong to apply the national security exemption to the request and that, in any event, they did not correctly weigh up the "very strong" public interest in police accountability (i.e., allowing people to assess how Prevent is operating and how the police are using their powers); in safeguarding policing by consent through transparency; and in promoting evidence-based policymaking.

Tyrone Steele, Interim Legal Director at JUSTICE, said: "No matter the colour of our skin or where we live, we must all be able to trust that public bodies will treat us fairly. Generic cookie-cutter refusals to basic checks on how the police are using their powers are never good enough – not least when trust in policing has been rocked by scandal after scandal.

"Without this data, it will be impossible to understand how Prevent is being delivered on the ground or what changes are needed to best ensure all communities are protected from discrimination."

Estelle Dehon KC and John Fitzsimons of Cornerstone Barristers appeared for JUSTICE. They were instructed by Travers Smith LLP.

Merseyside Police and West Midlands Police have been approached for comment.

The ICO said it could not comment while the litigation was ongoing.

Adam Carey