Issue - meetings

Purpose of the report

The purpose of this report was to seek the approval by Cabinet of the draft Venue Hire and External Speaker policy. The introduction of this policy would ensure the Council’s continued compliance with the Prevent Duty.

Decision

That Cabinet approves the draft Venue Hire and External Speaker Policy for use across its public venues.

Alternative options considered and rejected

The Council must meet statutory responsibilities under the Prevent Duty. Therefore, the do-nothing option was discounted.

Reasons for the decision

The approval of the Venue Hire and External Speaker Policy was made to ensure the Council met the requirements placed upon it by the Prevent Duty 2023.

The Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 created a statutory duty to have due regard to the need to prevent people being drawn into terrorism. This duty applied to all public bodies (local authorities, police, the National Health Service (NHS), schools, further and higher education providers, probation, prisons and youth offending services).

Under the Prevent Duty, local authorities were expected to ensure appropriate frontline staff, including those of its contractors, had a good understanding of Prevent, were trained to recognise where a person might be susceptible to becoming radicalised into terrorism, and were aware of available programmes to provide support.

The Policy was to be reviewed in December 2025. Thanks were given to the Community Engagement Manager for her work on the Policy.