Police ‘struggling’ with record number of terror inquiries
COUNTER-TERRORISM police and the security services are managing more than 700 live investigations – a record high, MPs have heard.
Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu told the Home Affairs Select Committee that 80% of cases related to Islamist plots, while the rest involved extreme right-wing conspiracies.
He said that his greatest concern was “attacks on softer targets that are cheap to mount, easy to disguise and harder to see and stop”. Police and security services have halted 17 terror plots since March last year.
Mr Basu, head of counter-terror policing, said the attacks in London and Manchester had permanently raised the threat level to the UK.
Calling for longer-term funding to fight terrorism, he said the battle was “entirely” dependent on well-resourced forces. “It is extremely difficult when we are working to short-term funding arrangements,” he added.
He admitted he “would like to say” the police capability was matched to the heightened threat, “but the reality is we are not”.
Sara Khan, who leads the Commission for Countering Extremism, told MPs: “People in this country are deeply concerned about what they perceive to be rising extremism.”