- Existing vetting processes for policing, including enhanced levels of vetting for sensitive posts, offer a further level of assurance to identify any vulnerability.[1]
104. This issue was brought into sharp focus in April 2021, when the media reported that Metropolitan Police officer Ben Hannam had been convicted of membership of National Action. Hannam was jailed for four years and four months—the first serving British police officer to be convicted of a terrorism offence. It had emerged during his trial that there were indications of his beliefs whilst he was still at school (he had apparently joined National Action in early 2016 whilst studying for his A-levels, and just two days before he applied to join the force had appeared in a neo-Nazi propaganda video). A teacher told the trial she had been unable to mark one essay submitted by Hannam—the first time this had happened in 20 years of teaching—because of "concerning content" and his "intolerance towards Islam".[2] He was also spoken to after students at his diverse school reacted to 'anti-immigration' views he espoused during a debate. A Prevent referral was not made at the time. However, the police had not sought a reference from the school when Hannam applied to join the police.
105. When we questioned the Head of CTP about this, we were told that Hannam had undergone the same checks as other recruits applying for the police, and that their "current vetting processes would not have picked up Hannam's membership and interest in National Action".[3]
106. Hannam's extremist activity had eventually been picked up through a data leak from a closed forum called Iron March.[4] CTP explained that for the police to have picked up Hannam, without having detected that leak, at the point of entering the police, they would have needed to complete an extensive search of his internet activity and IP searches. We were told that this has not, to date, been done routinely for individuals joining the police, on the grounds that the resource and privacy implications are "quite enormous". The police are now actively considering this additional measure, although the Head of CTP caveated that "reality being . . . people don't like the idea that their whole internet history is going to be looked at as part of their application for a particular job".[5]
107. When we asked the Home Secretary whether she was comfortable with that level of risk when it came to the police, she was clear that as far as she was concerned it was imperative that the vetting process for those entering the police was sufficiently rigorous:
my line of questioning now around vetting is very much case by case, step by step, you know, what are the processes, and there are other individuals as well, not in relation to this example but others where I'm asking some pretty detailed questions because one of the areas where I need assurance right now is that it's not just, you know, desk-based, paper-based tick-box but people are actually contacted and the right questions are being asked and they are asked consistently.[6]
- ↑ Written evidence - CTP, 14 September 2020.
- ↑ 'Ben Hannam: the neo-Nazi who joined the Metropolitan Police', BBC News, 1 April 2021.
- ↑ Oral evidence - CTP, 28 April 2021.
- ↑ Iron March was a neo-Nazi website. It was launched in 2011 and ceased operating in 2017.
- ↑ Oral evidence - CTP, 28 April 2021.
- ↑ Oral evidence - Home Secretary, 20 May 2021.
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