The announcement, made in Chancellor Alistair Darling’s pre-budget report, marks a GB pound 1bn increase on current spending.
By the end of 2011, the government hopes to allocate GB pound 61m of the annual terror budget to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the British Council and the BBC World Service to breakdown cultural barriers.
An additional GB pound 100 million has been allocated to help communities reject and condemn violent extremism, specifically supporting individuals ‘most at risk’ of becoming terrorists.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith welcomed the news. “The funding will improve our ability to tackle the immediate threat to the UK, strengthen our security measures to protect the UK from attack, allow the development of new technology which will enable us to keep ahead of the terrorists, and put in place longer term programmes to counter radicalisation,” she said.
But Conservatives dismissed Darling’s report as one of “spin, theft and hidden tax rises”. Opposition leaders are concerned that extra spending will be funded by GB pound 2.2bn of additional taxes over the next three years.
George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, said the PBR was a cynical stunt from a “desperate and weak Prime Minister”.
“I don’t know why he even bothered to turn up. He should have called that election and let us deliver the Budget. From this day on, let there be no doubt about who is winning the battle of ideas.”
The Government also unveiled plans for a new single security and intelligence budget, which aims to bring together all funding for security and intelligence agencies, the police and government.
A ministerial committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, will review the spending plans for this budget once a year.
