The murderer of Conservative MP Sir David Amess was released from the UK government’s counterterrorism scheme too early after “problematic” assessments of his vulnerabilities, a review has found.
Security minister Dan Jarvis told the House of Commons on Wednesday that Ali Harbi Ali, who killed the MP for Southend West in October 2021, had been referred to the Prevent programme between 2014 and 2016.
He said the Prevent learning review, commissioned by the Home Office to examine the handling of Ali’s case following the fatal attack, found “the assessment in terms of the perpetrator’s vulnerabilities was problematic”.
“This ultimately led to questionable decision making and suboptimal handling of the case during the time he was engaged with Prevent and [counter-radicalisation programme] Channel,” Jarvis said.
While Prevent policy and guidance was “mostly followed”, the reviewer found that Ali’s case was “exited from Prevent too quickly”, he added.
In 2022, Ali was handed a whole-life sentence for the murder of Amess after using a false address to trick his way into the MP’s constituency surgery. He was also found guilty of a second offence of preparing for acts of terrorism.
The review published on Wednesday was completed shortly before Ali was convicted and sentenced, and the government promised to publish it after a separate report into Prevent’s handling of Axel Rudakubana, who killed three young girls in Southport last year, was released last week.
Concerns about a change in Ali’s behaviour at school prompted the initial referral to the programme, according to the review. One month later he was transferred to the “Channel” scheme, the strand of Prevent that deals with the most high-risk cases.
By April 2015 Ali had exited Channel, when his risk of terrorism was assessed to be low. A year later a police review also found no terrorism concerns, so he exited the Prevent scheme at that point, Jarvis said.
Jarvis said the review identified six issues with the handling of Ali’s case by Prevent, including that “record keeping was problematic and the rationale for certain decisions was not explicit”.
In addition, an “outdated” tool was used for identifying his vulnerability to radicalisation, and his school was not involved in discussions to help determine risk and appropriate support.
Paying tribute to Amess’s family for “the courage and persistence they have shown in seeking the answers they deserve”, Jarvis set out recommendations since implemented to strengthen Prevent, including improvements to the referral and initial intelligence assessment processes.