Taxpayers Alliance publishes report on Prevent and Local Authority spending

Tuesday, 08 September 2009 15:05

As the Communities and Local Government Committee inquiry into Prevent collates submissions in its call for evidence, (closing date 17th Sept), the Taxpayers Alliance discloses its own findings on the allocation of Prevent funds in a new report.

The TA extensively documents organisations and projects that have been recipients of these public funds. The detailed list will raise further questions over the delivery of Prevent and the widespread criticism of funds being channelled into projects without due diligence, oversight or assessment.

The fact that information gathering was itself an arduous process, with TA making several FOI requests nationally and locally, is a further indictment of the poor oversight mechanisms in place.

Matthew Sinclair, Research Director of TA, writing in Guardian’s Comment is Free section on the new report, states:

‘The results suggest that councils have struggled to allocate the funds effectively. The government have distanced themselves from the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) after it boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day and a deputy secretary general signed a declaration that appeared to advocate attacks on the Royal Navy in some circumstances. But affiliates of the MCB have received over £850,000 from local authorities and the department under Prevent, and the amount is increasing with around £262,000 given to MCB affiliates in 2007-08 and around £560,000 in 2008-09 (the rest coming from DCLG directly in 2006-07).’

The MCB didn’t attend HMD this past year in protest of the war in Gaza and not for reasons of a boycott. And the matter involving the deputy secretary general and the Istanbul Declaration remains in the hands of lawyers acting on Dr Daud Abdullah’s behalf in a libel action.

What funds certain MCB affiliates receive under Prevent is a matter for those affiliates, it’s hardly cause for Sinclair to malign the reputation of the MCB. It odd that the Taxpayer's Alliance seems to have singled out Muslim organisations for receiving these funds. No doubt it will soon be issuing a report into what public funds have been given to groups from other faith communities.

Comments

Add New