So we have got an incubator happening right now in Thames House, with GCHQ in place and other colleagues there, with behavioural science methodology very strongly sort of at the centre of that particular piece of work.[1]
235. MI5 advised that the BSU has embedded its work on ERWT within established structures for triage and prioritisation alongside their work on Islamist extremism[2]—it also has *** members of BSU staff working closely with ERWT operational teams doing *** in this area.[3] The Director General of MI5 noted that the BSU has been looking at ERWT for some time, ***:
the Behavioural Science Unit has been interested in this area for some years because, even before MI5 inherited operational responsibilities on Right Wing terrorism, it was an interesting area to do comparative research between different ideologies, different forms of extremism. So there is quite a reasonable level of BSU, Behavioural Science Unit, engagement in this subject . . . we just don't have the same evidence base [as with the Islamist terrorist threat], because there has been less in the way of Right Wing terrorist attacks or plots. So we are building that evidence base all the time but *** So the work is underway but it is constrained not by our wish to do the work but by the fact that there is less of it to study.[4]
236. Once the evidence base does increase, it would be interesting to see if there is any evidence of links to drug abuse, or other traits, although we note that at present ***.
237. It is clear that the BSU is a vital capability and one that the Director General of MI5 advised is, ***, only brought in to the investigative process ***:
our Behavioural Science Unit is ***, so we typically would not involve them at the initial stage of any individual lead thing but what we do use them on is two related pieces, one of which is *** they feed in a lot of expertise there; but the other and crucial thing they have done, which I think is where your question is going, is they have done properly grounded evidence based studies of the kinds of people who have progressed later to terrorism.[5]
- ↑ Oral evidence - MI5, 25 April 2018.
- ↑ Two areas where the BSU's work on ERWT differs from that of Islamist extremism are: forward deploying *** with expertise in issues relating to young people in to investigative group working on ERWT threats; and *** on the diffuse ideological influences underpinning ERWT.
- ↑ Written evidence - MI5, 26 May 2021.
- ↑ Oral evidence - MI5, 29 April 2021.
- ↑ Oral evidence - MI5, 29 April 2021.
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