Counter Terrorism Policing

Working to keep people safe from terrorism

Counter Terrorism Policing is a collaboration of UK police forces working with the UK intelligence community to help protect the public and our national security by preventing, deterring, and investigating terrorist activity.

Our mission

Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) is funded by HM Government to deliver the law enforcement elements of its ‘CONTEST’ Counter Terrorism strategy. We deliver this as a collaboration of the 43 police forces of England and Wales, alongside the police services of Scotland and Northern Ireland

Workign for us

Your skills could help protect the UK. With the ongoing terrorist threat, there has never been a more important time to be working alongside some of the best and brightest to help keep people safe.

A career in Counter Terrorism Policing is like no other. With a range of roles spanning the UK, you won’t always need a background in security to play a part in keeping the UK safe. From finance to project management, data analysis to communications and more, we are always looking for a vast range of skills, knowledge and experiences to join our teams.

Work with us and you will be joining a world-class Counter Terrorism Policing network. In addition to fascinating work and talented colleagues you’ll find a range of benefits including a competitive pension, exciting career pathways, generous holiday allowances, opportunities for secondments across the Counter Terrorism Policing network and much more.

Counter Terrorism Policing is always working to build upon our diverse workforce to reflect the country we serve, so you’ll enjoy a varied and fulfilling working environment. An inclusive culture enables us to do things differently, working in ways that meet individuals’ needs, flexing working patterns to ensure work-life balance is healthy so that we deliver the best for the organisation. With a variety of training and development opportunities, you’ll find a range of exciting career pathways waiting for you.

You can play your part in keeping the country safe. Do something amazing with your skills. Join us today.

What is the terrorist threat facing the UK?

The threat to the UK from terrorism is SUBSTANTIAL, meaning an attack is likely. This has been the case since February 2022.

Our core mission is to keep the public safe, and we work tirelessly alongside local police forces, and security and intelligence services to confront a rapidly evolving terrorist threat. DG MI5, Ken McCallum, recently revealed that since the start of 2020 CTP and MI5 have together disrupted 19 late-stage plots.

Pursue: Investigative scale and focus

Alongside MI5, CTP is working on more than 800 live investigations, involving thousands of ‘subjects of interest’ who are suspected of being directly involved in terrorism. These investigations range from those suspected of creating or sharing terrorist material, providing financial support to terrorist groups, or planning terror attacks in the UK or overseas.

Investigations cannot be kept open indefinitely. Choices have to constantly be made about prioritising our investigative, surveillance and digital resources. This means that alongside our partners in MI5 we have to make difficult decisions every day about where we focus our resources, and which investigations need to be prioritised.

CTP arrests, on average, around 250 people every year on suspicion of terrorist offences. The largest single focus of our investigations is Islamist extremist terrorism, in many cases inspired, and in some enabled, by groups such as Islamic State (Da-esh) or Al Qaida.

Of the 254 people in prison for terrorism and terrorism-connected offences, around 60% were convicted as Islamist terrorists. Nearly a third (30%) are white-supremacists, neo-Nazis – Extreme Right Wing Terrorists (ERWT). Of those remaining, some have less clear ideologies, often related conspiracy theories. This split reflects the reality of our investigations with MI5, which is roughly 75% Islamist terrorism, 25% ERWT, with a small number of left wing and single-issue ideologies.  

Working with police forces and emergency services across the country, CTP leads the law-enforcement response to acts of terrorism when they happen. This includes incident response, leading the post-incident investigation, supporting victims, survivors and their families, and bringing those responsible to justice where possible.

Prevent: scale and outcomes

While our Pursue work focuses on managing the threat posed by the thousands of people described above, CTP also delivers policing’s contribution to the Prevent programme – the preventative arm of the Home Office-led CONTEST strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists.

CTP carries out risk and vulnerability assessment and management on behalf of the rest of the system, and works alongside other agencies – from health and education, to local authorities and others – to deliver multi-agency case management.

Every year, around 7,000 people are referred for initial assessment. Each one of these cases is assessed by specialist officers and staff, who decide whether a vulnerability to radicalisation exists, what multi-agency support – if any – an individual might require, and how best to manage any risks that are identified. More than 31,000 cases have been assessed by officers since 2019, meaning our Prevent teams play an integral role in the fight against terrorism, as well ensuring the thousands referred each year are getting any support they need.

In around 65% of those 7000 cases, it is decided that other services such as mental health, education, policing, local authorities and others are better placed to support these individuals. In these cases, officers revisit decision-making after six and 12 month periods to re-assess whether any other action is needed to be taken.

In around 500 cases every year, individuals are assessed as being at risk of being drawn into terrorism, and are offered bespoke support through the ‘Channel’ programme. This consists of a multi-agency panel of specialists from policing, health, education, local authority and other services, who identify people at risk, assess the nature and extent of that risk, and develop the most appropriate support plan for the person concerned.

Channel has supported 5,000 people to move away from terrorism since the introduction of the statutory Prevent duty in 2015.

Public contact

The public has a critical role to play in our counter-terrorism response, and information from the public remains key to helping disrupt terrorist activity. In the last year, the public have contacted the Anti-Terrorist Hotline and its online equivalent, gov.uk/ACT, around 22,000 times. After being reviewed, one in five reports are passed to our officers – meaning the public are providing information that is relevant and important to our investigations.

The UK’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) works to identify, and investigate, those responsible for the proliferation of terrorist content online. Specialist officers work with platforms to stop harmful material being posted, remove it when it appears, and divert people away rather than towards it. The unit receives thousands of referrals each year, many of which come from members of the public who have reported concerning content they’ve seen being shared, or published online.