Offenders: Radicalism

Mr. Llwyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what intervention strategies his Department has developed to work with extremist offenders;

(2) what group work programmes his Department has accredited for use with convicted of offences related to terrorism (a) in prison and (b) on release in the community.

Mr. Straw
The National Offender Management Service is taking forward a wide-ranging programme of work to manage the risks of violent extremism and radicalisation among offenders. Part of this programme includes work to research, develop and evaluate potential intervention approaches.

Given the comparatively low number of terrorist offenders and the different motivations and behaviours they present in relation to their offending, it is difficult to identify with statistical significance and reliability factors associated with terrorist offending or reoffending. Therefore prison and probation staff need to use all available sources of evidence to assess the risk of serious harm or reconviction which terrorist offenders pose, and to identify appropriate intervention strategies.

For any intervention to be effective it will need to target the reasons why people offend which are different for each individual. There are currently no group work programmes specifically accredited for use with those convicted of offences related to terrorism. NOMS is working to understand the potential use of a wide range of intervention strategies which may help combat violent extremist offending and address the criminogenic factors of the individual violent extremist offender.