Front cover of the February 2021 report of the Commission: Operating with Impunity - Hateful extremism: The need for a legal framework

The Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE) is a British government agency created under Prime Minister Theresa May in response to the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.

History

The idea was mentioned in the 2017 election platform of the Conservative Party, released four days before the Manchester bombing attack.[1][2] May described the Commission as "a statutory body to help fight hatred and extremism in the same way as we have fought racism."[3]

Sara Khan was named head of the new commission in January 2018. The appointment was criticised by former Conservative Party chairwoman Sayeeda Warsi, Harun Khan, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, and Labour MP Naz Shah.[4]

On 24 February 2021 the Commission released a report "Operating with Impunity - Hateful extremism: The need for a legal framework".[5]

In March 2021, Priti Patel appointed Robin Simcox as CCE commissioner in an interim capacity. Before this, Simcox had worked as a research fellow at the neo-conservative Henry Jackson Society think tank, and as a Margaret Thatcher Fellow at The Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, specialising in counterterrorism.[6][7] In 2019, he had stated that the UK's official definition of a hate crime was "far too broad" in response to a CCE report. He had also founded the Counter Extremism Group organisation.[7] Patel officially appointed Simcox as commissioner in July 2022.[6]

In October 2021, The Independent repotred that since 2019, ministers had not formally responded to any of the reports released by the commission.[8]

In December 2022, the commission held a conference involving speeches from Michael Gove and Munira Mirza.[9]

In its 2022-23 end of year report, it noted that it had commissioned research on "how blasphemy is viewed and presented by UK Islamists" and "how various fringe ideologies promote anti-government messaging online".[9]

In August 2023, a report by The Independent stated that the CCE had underspent £300,000 in 2021-22, and £680,000 (over a third of its budget) in 2022-23 which the commission stated was partially due to "delays in staff recruitment" and "setting up project work", returning both amounts to the Home Office. The paper also reported that since Simcox's 2021 appointment, the commission had "published no new research or scrutiny of government policy," but that it was mostly working on the implementation of the findings of a review of the government’s Prevent counterterrorism programme, a measure asked of Simcox by home secretary Suella Braverman.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Peck, Tom (27 May 2017). "Theresa May to set up commission for countering extremism". The Independent. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  2. ↑ Travis, Alan (17 September 2017). "Paralysis at the heart of UK counter-extremism policy". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  3. ↑ "Finsbury Park attack: Theresa May's statement in full". BBC. 19 June 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  4. ↑ Grierson, Jamie (25 January 2018). "Choice of new UK anti-extremism chief criticised as 'alarming'". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  5. ↑ "Operating with impunity: legal review". gov.uk. 24 February 2021.
  6. 1 2 Geiger, Chas (19 October 2023). "UK permits antisemitism, says counter-extremism adviser". BBC News. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  7. 1 2 Dearden, Lizzie (12 May 2021). "New extremism chief appointed by Priti Patel dismissed 'Islamophobia' and 'violent extremism'". The Independent. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  8. ↑ Dearden, Lizzie (18 October 2021). "Ministers ignored official recommendations to combat hateful extremism". The Independent. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  9. 1 2 3 Dearden, Lizzie (20 August 2023). "£1m counterextremism funding returned to Home Office despite rising terror threat". The Independent. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
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