Today’s Home Office stories include the desistance and disengagement deradicalisation programme, the Home Office’s settled status scheme and hit and run cases.
Choudary must go on anti-extremism course
Anjem Choudary is among extremists and Daesh fighters to undergo Britain’s first compulsory deradicalisation programme, a report in the Times claims.
The article reports that Choudary, 51, has been ordered to attend the desistance and disengagement programme (DDP) as part of his probation.
The course requires him to receive mentoring and theological advice. The paper states that it is the Government’s latest attempt to combat the heightened terrorism threat.
The DDP is part of a revamped counterterrorism strategy and marks a ‘significant change’ to the Prevent extremism scheme, the paper claims.
Fact Sheet: Desistence and Disengagement Programme - https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2018/06/04/updated-contest-strategy-published/
Charity challenges Home Office’s ‘settled status’ plan for EU nationals
The Financial Times carries claims that hundreds of thousands of EU nationals could face uncertainty over their UK residency as part of the ‘settled status’ plan.
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) is launching a legal challenge at the High Court claiming the criteria required to fulfil ‘settled status’ has been overcomplicated.
The FT claims the original checks were: nationality, residence in UK, and criminal checks.
The report goes on to claim that scheme rules published by the Home Office in June will now also reserve the right to refuse ‘settled status’ to anyone who has turned down work in the UK – leaving hundreds of thousands at risk.
A Home Office spokesperson said:
EU citizens play an important and positive role in our economy and society and we want them to stay.
The draft Withdrawal Agreement published in March guarantees the rights of EU citizens and their family members living in the UK, and UK nationals living in the EU.
The UK has decided, as a matter of domestic policy, to be more generous than the draft Withdrawal Agreement, and a person will not be refused status under the EU Settlement Scheme because for example they are not economically active or they do not hold comprehensive sickness insurance.
Hit and run cases increase by 46 per cent in four years
The Telegraph and Daily Star both carry stories suggesting hit and run case have increased 46 per cent in four years.
Both stories refer to a BBC Five Live report, which claims numbers had risen from 19,239 to 28,010 between 2013 and 2017.
The Star suggests the number of hit and runs could be “‘significantly higher’ after just 27 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales revealed figures”.
A Home Office spokesperson said:
Police have the powers they need to keep our roads safe. The number of reported road deaths in 2017 is similar to the level seen since 2012 and there were 39% fewer fatalities in 2017 compared with 2007.
It is for Chief Constables and locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners to decide how to deploy their resources in response to local priorities.