Violence Plans Shelved on Cost, Southport Inquiry Told
Four Home Office proposals drawn up after the Southport murders — on online risk, prevention partnerships, a national gateway and strengthening Prevent — were not taken forward because they required more money, the inquiry has heard. The department decided instead to focus on “cost-neutral improvements” before last year’s spending review.
Counsel to the inquiry, Nicholas Moss KC, set the decision against the prime minister’s statement at the time that “Southport must be a line in the sand”, suggesting the sentiment “doesn’t sit entirely comfortably” with accepting that high-ambition responses would be put on hold. The Home Office witness replied that part of the context was an expectation that the inquiry would make its own recommendations. What the four proposals would have cost cannot be reported, because the figures were redacted in the document shown to the inquiry. A separate departmental review last May found a “confused picture” and a system at risk of “allowing cases to fall between the cracks”, which counsel called bleak but candid and the witness accepted. The inquiry, chaired by Sir Adrian Fulford, is examining how violent fixated individuals are managed; its first phase concluded the attack that killed Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe could and should have been prevented. The hearings continue.