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Fighting terrorism
21/06/2009
Scotland's police forces are to create more than 50 new counter terrorism posts to help protect communities, with £1.75 million in additional funding this year from the Scottish Government.
The funding will support posts across Scotland, improving the capacity of the police to pursue those who support or become involved in terrorist activity whilst allowing them to work with communities to raise awareness and tackle issues around terrorism and violent extremism.
The posts will include counter terrorism security advisers, financial investigators, intelligence assessors and analysts.
This new funding is combined with the work going on both within the Scottish Government and at UK Government level to ensure the safety and security of people and the successful prosecution of terrorists.
In particular, the Scottish Government is developing with the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) and key agencies a Scottish approach to preventing terrorism as part of the UK counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST - focusing on improving communications, knowledge and understanding and through better co-ordination of project interventions.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said:
"Terrorism is a threat to all of our communities. The Glasgow Airport attack of two years ago showed that Scotland is not immune from that threat, and that is why we all need to work together to reduce the possibility of another terrorist attack in this country.
"The Scottish Government is fully committed to the fight against international terrorism and that is why we are equipping our police forces to tackle this threat.
"These additional counter terrorism officers will help to make our country more secure and allow the police to work with communities to raise awareness of terrorism and related issues to make Scotland a safer place.
"We will continue to work with other jurisdictions, south of the border and elsewhere, to ensure the safety of all our citizens and that those who seek to disrupt our way of life to perpetrate terror are prosecuted for their crimes."
Counter terrorism is an element of National Security, which is reserved to Westminster. Since 2003, CONTEST has been the UK framework for countering terrorism. Many aspects of prevention and consequence management are devolved, however, and the Scottish Government plays a prominent role in delivering the CONTEST strategy in Scotland. The CONTEST Strategy was fully revised by the UK Government in March of this year and this additional funding takes the key priorities in the revised strategy into account.
In total the Scottish Government now provides over £14 million a year in dedicated funding to Scotland's Police forces to tackle terrorism - an increase of over £6 million in the last three years. These resources are provided in full to the Police from the Scottish Government's "Police Central Government" fund.
The Scottish Government has worked carefully with the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) to ensure that investment in this area is proportionate and targeted. Resourcing has been gradually increased over the last three years, to, ensure that efforts to tackle terrorism are well planned and effective.