Michelle Cunningham presented the report that provided Members with the opportunity to review the Councils response to the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, ensured that they understood the local threat and to judge whether the strategy and actions planned would address that threat. Members were referred to the Home Office Prevent Handbook that outlined three key roles for elected Members in shaping and delivering Prevent activity locally and these were Leadership and Direction, Community Dialogue and Scrutiny.

Councillor Redsell thanked Michelle Cunningham for the report and asked for clarification on the Panels being referred to. Michelle Cunningham stated that the Channel Panel formed a key part of Prevent which was a multiagency approach to identifying those individuals who were at risk of being drawn into terrorism, had access to the nature and extent of that risk and provided early support to those identified as being vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism. The Strategic Prevent Board focused on the delivery of the wider aspects such as training, communications and engagement and would be fed up into community safety partnership for their awareness.

Michelle Cunningham stated the Pledge Card had been developed by the Members Working Group and had been aimed at members to highlight the five key points and how to report suspicious activity. Councillor Redsell stated it would be good idea to send this out again to all Members.

Councillor J Kent referred to the training being delivered and questioned who this had been available to, what the take up of this training had been and had the training been available to elected Members. Michelle Cunningham stated this training had been offered by the Learning Development Team to schools, partners and internal professionals and would be happy for this to be available to Members. Councillor J Kent stated that Members should be invited to take part in these training sessions as Members may need to demonstrate that they had completed such training. That there was a misunderstanding on what Prevent was and the intentions of Prevent. This training should be mandatory for all Members and before any decisions were made on the Prevent Committee, Members should be given the opportunity to attend training to ensure they understood what the Prevent strategy was and what that role would be. Michelle Cunningham replied that Members had been offered sessions and would be happy to arrange further sessions.

Councillor J Kent recommended that a further recommendation 1.5 be added to this item in that all elected Members should undertake the Prevent training and to make this a mandatory requirement.Members were in agreement with this and would be added to the report.

RESOLVED

That Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee Members:

1.         Noted the increased National risk.

2.         Understood the implications for the Local Authority in relation to the Channel Duty Guidance.

3.         Considered the ratings and actions reported in the self-assessment Preventduty toolkit for Local Authorities.

4.         Supported the Members working group to promote the important role that members play in raising awareness of Prevent, community tension monitoring and reporting concerns.

5.         That this committee recommend that all elected Members undertake the Prevent training and make this a mandatory requirement.