Home Office accused of ‘interference’ in delayed review of Prevent counterterror scheme

Exclusive: Documents show government requests for amendments to ‘independent’ report

Fresh legal action is being considered over the long-delayed review headed by William Shawcross, into the government’s anti-terror Prevent scheme (PA Archive)

The Home Office has been accused of “interfering” with an independent review of the Prevent counterterror scheme after documents revealed numerous meetings and demands for changes to the report.

The reviewer, the former chairman of the Charity Commission William Shawcross, handed his findings to the government last April but they have still not been published, four years after the probe was commissioned.

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests by campaigners show that Mr Shawcross and the review team met with the former home secretary Priti Patel, other ministers and Home Office officials 13 times between February 2021 and August 2022 – including on five occasions after the report was drafted.