1. Please can you disclose all information you hold on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, otherwise commonly known as the PFLP?
The Council hold a vast amount of information on our establishment. We contacted the team(s) most likely to hold information in the Council which would relate to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The Prevent and Channel Lead officer has advised that it would exceed 18 hours to determine whether the information is held or not. Therefore Section 12 of the FOI Act, is being applied as the request would exceed the appropriate limit. They have advised that more specific parameters (such as dates, teams, or process) would be required to search the data held.

2. Please can you disclose the number of Prevent referrals made by or to your organisation regarding the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, otherwise commonly known as the PFLP since 1st January 2012?
The Council are neither confirming nor denying that information is held in relation to this question. This has been decided from advice that has been supplied by the Home Office and consideration of the Section 24(2) of the FOI Act. Reasons for applying the neither confirm nor deny are as follows;
Prevent referrals are indicators of a threat level in an area/sector of society
o People who are referred to Prevent have been considered susceptible to radicalisation by someone, usually a frontline professional like a teacher or social worker
o In this case a referral would have been made by someone who was concerned that a susceptible individual was at significant risk of being drawn into terrorism due to their belief in the ideology of the PFLP
• Therefore, the number of referrals made by or to an area or sector of society is an indicator of the general threat level in that area.
• Disclosing the level of referrals about the PFLP made by the council, or shared with the council by the police in X area would provide information of the extent of the pool of individuals who were susceptible to being drawn into terrorism via the ideology that the PFLP espouses.
• More broadly individuals could use multiple FOIs to create a ‘threat map’ of the UK. This map could be used to better focus radicalisation efforts nationally
• Disclosure would also set a precedent whereby FOIs could be sent in about prevent referrals made regarding any group. Multiple FOIs could therefore be sent in to areas across the country asking about the number of referrals made regarding a range of different groups. This would provide a detailed threat map of the prevalence of susceptibility to radicalisation by affiliation to a certain group broken down by area.
• There is a serious terrorist threat to the United Kingdom
• Disclosing this information would risk national security.