The head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing, Assistant Commissioner of Specialist Operations (ACSO) Neil Basu, is delivering a speech at the National Security Summit in London this morning. #ActionCountersTerrorism 
This thread will pick out key points in ACSO’s speech, which aims to explain the nature of the terrorist threat we face and how we must work together across society to combat it. #ActionCountersTerrorism
ACSO Basu: “Evil triumphs when good people do nothing and I lead thousands of people who far from do nothing; they volunteer to get up every day to rid the world of one of the greatest evils – terrorism. I work with heroes."
“My illustrious predecessor previously described the UK CT network as the finest in the world – I believe this to still hold true – underpinned as it is by the closest of relationship between MI5, CT Policing and OSCT in the Home Office.”
“This gives each of us access to the others' entire network, each of us with a mantra of sharing intelligence and working together to protect the UK and its interests. No other country has as mature or deep a relationship as ours, between these great state institutions.”
"And those relationships are more important than ever, because IS have brought about a change in attack planning, from complex plots to simple, readily deployable, attack methodology. This means identifying the threat and intervening became much harder."
"Terrorists believe they are justified. They want to destroy the West and its way of life and they feed the far-right rhetoric, which is inspiring extreme right wing terrorism and the first white supremacist proscribed organisation in the UK for decades – National Action."
"The increase in tempo has been dramatic – our priority investigations are up by 30% over the last 18 months; following the attacks there was a 17% increase in TACT arrests. Currently, 71% of CT arrests are of UK nationals; 11% are female, and over a third are under 25."
"JTAC have described it as a “shift not a spike” in the threat, but it has stabilised to become the new UK normal. At their height, the first 4 attacks last summer absorbed 715 CT detectives. No force – not even the Met – could cope on its own."
"And the initial response is not specialist CT resources, it's core policing. More than 70% in the early stages, alongside our emergency service partners. Policing is a machine with many moving parts and CT policing is just a fraction of the effort required to keep us safe."
"That’s why we cannot absorb further cuts in wider policing, even if we maintain the CT policing budget. You will have heard us stress that the threat requires a whole system approach, not just policing and certainly not just one aspect of policing."
"The threat is underpinned by segregated, isolated communities; unregulated education; unbridled use of the internet to deliver propaganda and instruction; and digital media seizures that are overwhelming investigators who need to access, translate, and categorise all of it."
"For example, following 7/7 we siezed 4 terabytes of digital evidence. Following the Manchester attack, 475 mobile telephones, 86 computers, 199 digital storage devices and 80 other digital devices were seized, totalling 25 amounted terabytes."
"Considering that just 1 terabyte of data roughly equates to 60 separate piles of paper each as high as the Eiffel Tower, one can see the immense scale of the data we encounter and which is increasing year on year."
"We rely on close cooperation with our network of international partners, including those across the European Union, in combatting terrorism. This is why, post-Brexit, we are keen to ensure that our response to international criminality and terrorism remains effective."
"UK police currently utilise 32 European law enforcement and national security measures and the loss of one or more of these measures – covering such areas as intelligence sharing, surveillance and extradition of suspects across EU borders - would have significant implications."
"There will be closer integration with MI5 and the CT Missions of its sister agencies in the future and this will involve three big step changes: managing Data; developing Partnerships; and our joint focus on domestic extremism – particularly extremist right wing terrorism."
"In an ideal world we would be able to spot people on their path to radicalisation and terrorism and that leads us into the most important pillar of all – Prevent. We need to talk about Prevent."
"Drawing from what our founder Robert Peel set out – our prevention of crime comes before detecting it. No rational human being would argue against that logic and we have a strategy to do that. How have we allowed that strategy to become so toxic?"
"How have we left a vacuum in the conversation that has allowed radicalisers to dominate the criticism and persuade many other moderate, rational well-meaning people that this strategy is a busted flush?"
"Anyone who spends time with those tackling the root causes of radicalisation will know how valuable this work is, whether the potential extremist is motivated by white supremacy, Islamist jihadism, animal rights or the environment. Prevent practitioners need to be supported."
"At the same time we need to understand the nexus between counter extremism and integration policies and how these can compound, amplify and support Prevent in the future."
"The language must change to that of safeguarding and we need to rebalance the police input, bringing in partners whose skills are better placed to deliver. We need to speak openly about what we are trying to achieve and what effect it’s having."
"Where it fails, and it can – we must be bold enough to recognise that a single failure does not undermine an entire strategy, and remember that after saving life, preventing crime is more important than detecting it."
"We need to continue to target hate on the internet and put pressure on companies controlling those platforms to self-censor and report those who are abusing democracy and free speech to inspire, encourage and enable acts of unspeakable violence and depravity."
"Most importantly we need the confidence of the public, local authority, health and education to change hearts and minds, to support the use of Prevent. It can’t be about coercion – you must really believe in this stuff if it’s going to work."
"We will only be able to combat terrorism through the support of our communities. I need all police officers to be Counter Terror officers and I need every good citizen to be a Counter Terror citizen. Only the eyes and ears of the law abiding can thicken the thin blue line."
"An ordered, tolerant, equitable, free society is an anvil on which to hammer and break terror and serious criminality. We will maintain and strengthen the foundations of Govt, the security services, police and the public."
"We will improve our discovery of threat through the better use of data; we will share that data with a wider group of partners. We will not let the extreme right wing divide our societies and we will continue to strengthen the resilience of our communities at home and abroad."
"Evil triumphs when good people do nothing. But beware and strongly resist the temptation to overreact. Fear is a catalyst for bad decision making in national security and we must never compromise our liberal democracy and respect for human rights."
