Countering International Terrorism: The response

5. Since early 2003, the United Kingdom has had a long-term strategy for countering international terrorism (known within Government as CONTEST). Its aim is to reduce the risk from international terrorism, so that people can go about their daily lives freely and with confidence. The strategy is divided into four principal strands: PREVENT, PURSUE, PROTECT, and PREPARE.

Preventing terrorism by tackling the radicalisation of individuals

6. The PREVENT strand is concerned with tackling the radicalisation of individuals. We seek to do this by:

• Tackling disadvantage and supporting reform - addressing structural problems in the UK and overseas that may contribute to radicalisation, such as inequalities and discrimination;
• Deterring those who facilitate terrorism and those who encourage others to become terrorists - changing the environment in which the extremists and those radicalising others can operate; and
• Engaging in the battle of ideas - challenging the ideologies that extremists believe can justify the use of violence, primarily by helping Muslims who wish to dispute these ideas to do so.

Pursuing terrorists and those that sponsor them

7. The PURSUE strand is concerned with reducing the terrorist threat to the UK and to UK interests overseas by disrupting terrorists and their operations. It has a number of aspects:

• Gathering intelligence - improving our ability to identify and understand the terrorist threat;
• Disrupting terrorist activity - taking action to frustrate terrorist attacks and to bring terrorists to justice through prosecution and other means, including strengthening the legal framework against terrorism, e.g. by introducing legislation to deport those who are judged to be not conducive to the public good; and
• International co-operation - working with partners and allies overseas to strengthen our intelligence effort and achieve disruption of terrorists outside the UK.

Protecting the public, key national services, and UK interests overseas

8. The PROTECT strand is concerned with reducing the vulnerability of the UK and UK interests overseas. This covers a range of issues including;

• Strengthening border security - so that terrorists and those who inspire them can be prevented from travelling here and we can get better intelligence about suspects who travel, including improving our identity management, for example by use of biometrics;
• Protecting key utilities - working with the private sector;
• Transport - reducing the risk and impact of attacks through security and technological advances; and
• Crowded places - protecting people going about their daily lives.

Preparing for the consequences

9. The PREPARE strand is concerned with ensuring that the UK is as ready as it can be for the consequences of a terrorist attack. The key elements are:

• Identifying the potential risks the UK faces from terrorism and assessing their impact;
• Building the necessary capabilities to respond to any attacks; and
• Continually evaluating and testing our preparedness - e.g. by frequently exercising to improve our response to incidents and learning lessons from incidents that do take place.