Counter-Terrorism policy is reserved to the Westminster Government, but many aspects of preparation, prevention and dealing with the consequences of a terrorist act in Scotland would be managed and controlled by the Scottish Government and local agencies.
The Scottish Government is fully committed to tackling terrorism. The current threat to the UK from terrorist attack is assessed as severe, meaning an attack could take place at any time, without warning.
The Scottish Government is engaged in a range of activities to address the threat, which integrate with the UK Government's overarching "CONTEST" counter terrorism strategy.
The CONTEST Strategy
CONTEST is the UK Government's Strategy for countering terrorism and comprises four main strands:
- Pursue -This element focuses on the pursuit of terrorists and those that sponsor them. This is about improving our understanding of terrorist networks, tracking terrorists down, disrupting their activities and bringing them to justice.
- Prevent - This strand is about disrupting terrorist activities and countering those factors which push and pull people into violent extremism and terrorism.
- Protect - This is concerned with protecting the public and national interests and making the UK a harder target through better protective security.
- Prepare - The overall objective of this strand is to reduce and ultimately minimise the potential harm caused by terrorist attacks. To achieve this, we need to improve our resilience to cope with attacks and other major disruptive challenges.
The Home Office launched "CONTEST 2" - a major refresh of the UK's counter-terrorism strategy, on 24 March 2009. The detailed strategy is available on the Home Office website alongside a summary leaflet which outlines the main elements (see useful links page).
The new strategy sets out a detailed account of the history of the terrorist threat, how in recent years a new form of international terrorism has emerged, and the impact that this has had on the UK. It also sets out the principles that govern our response to the threat, particularly our commitment to human rights and the rule of law.