Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the threats to public safety posed by terrorism have increased, including rising levels of extremist narratives, fake news about minority communities, and risks from online terrorist material. While terrorism-related offences fell by 37% between 2019/20 to 2020/21, an increasing proportion of terrorism-related arrests have been made under non-terrorism legislation in the past six years.

The April 2021 Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Act introduced a new terrorism sentence for serious offences and enhanced the existing prevention and investigation measures. This marked a significant transformation of terrorism monitoring and sentencing in response to recent terrorist attacks, aiming to protect the country and increase safety.

Delivering the Government’s PREVENT strategy and the new targets for enhancing security and protection involves implementing joined-up approaches, recognising new and emerging threats, and strengthening processes for information-sharing. The Government's recent response to the PREVENT Duty consultation highlighted the need for proportional responses to terrorist attacks, the need for accountability and digital services.

The Independent Review of Prevent will examine the CONTEST 2018 strategy for tackling the causes of radicalisation, safeguarding those most at risk, and rehabilitating those already engaged in terrorism. By improving collaboration, this aims to address terrorist threats from all sources, supported by evidence-based research and practitioners delivering Prevent.

The Counter Terror event will address recent legislative changes and the goals for coordinating a response to terrorist activities in the United Kingdom. It will feature knowledge and expertise from organisations to jointly combat the continually evolving threat of terrorism.