Guidance

Charter for the Commission for Countering Extremism

Published 15 March 2018

This Charter sets out the government’s commitment to the Commission for Countering Extremism (the ‘Commission’) including its purpose, priorities, accountabilities, and its outputs in its early months of operation. The Charter also confirms how the government will work with the Commission.

Purpose

Extremism has been identified by the government as one of the most significant and important challenges of our generation. While much has been done to tackle the harms caused to our society and communities, the Commission is being set up to help us all to do more.

The Commission will support the government, the public sector, civil and wider society and families to identify and challenge all forms of extremism. It will provide the government with impartial, expert advice on the tools, policies and approaches needed to tackle extremism; it will support the public sector, communities and civil society to confront extremism wherever it exists; and it will promote a positive vision of our core, shared values.

Independence of the Commission

The Commission will be a transparent body operating independently of government.

The Commission’s advice for the government and its decisions about who it meets and speaks with will be independent of the government. It will be free to determine independently its methodologies and the content of its reports, recommendations and public statements.

Commissioners must comply at all times with the Cabinet Office’s ‘Code of conduct for board members of public bodies’.

Work of the Commission

In its first year the Commission will:

• engage widely and openly on extremism and our core, shared values across the public sector, communities, civil society, families and legal and academic experts

• publish a study into the threat we face from extremism, and the current response

• advise ministers on the Commission’s future structures, work programme and the appointment of further commissioners. This advice will be informed by the Lead Commissioner’s engagement with stakeholders.

The Commission has no remit on counter-terrorism policies, including Prevent. When it identifies integration issues, it will raise these with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

How it will work

The Commission will work in a way that builds the trust and confidence of government, the wider public sector, civil society and the public. It will be required to carry out its work in accordance with this Charter.

It will:

• identify and challenge extremism in all its forms and provide the government with advice on the policies needed to tackle it

• advise and agree with the Home Secretary the Commission’s work programme and the remit and terms of reference for the studies it proposes to undertake

• engage widely and be prepared to work with those committed to confronting and responding to extremism in their communities

• appropriately handle all the information it receives and be open and rigorous in its research, engaging the public, civil society, academia, policy-makers and relevant bodies and experts

• engage widely with government and other relevant partners on its emerging findings and final recommendations and provide a robust evidence base to justify these

• ensure that it considers value for money and proper use of public funds in all its work.

What government will do

The Commission’s work is vital to defeating extremism. The government is fully committed to a Commission which will provide independent advice and recommendations on counter-extremism priorities. Commissioners will be appointed by the Home Secretary.

The government will support the Commission by:

• responding to Commission recommendations as soon as practicable, providing the supporting rationale for the government’s response

• sharing relevant information with the Commission and responding to reasonable requests for new analysis to support the Commission in a timely manner, including information not in the public domain where security considerations allow

• providing the Commission with a formal allocation letter to confirm its budget allocation and headcount limit. This will give the Commission the authority to spend up to the value of the allocation letter.

The Commission will operate independently, at arm’s length from government. Its remit will extend to England and Wales.

This Charter will be reviewed after 6 months.