Tough new measures to exclude stirrers of hate
(28 October 2008)

Tough new measures to prevent individuals who foster extremism or hate entering the UK were today announced by the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. These new rules will make it easier to exclude those who want to come to the UK to stir up religious or racial hatred - our presumption will be to keep people involved in these behaviours out of our country. For the first time we will name and shame preachers of hate and share our exclusions list with other countries to help them decide who should be excluded from their countries.

The proposals will deliver the Prime Minister's commitment in the National Security Strategy to take "stronger action against those we suspect of stirring up tensions."

The Home Secretary said: "Through these tough new measures I will stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country. Coming to the UK is a privilege and I refuse to extend that privilege to individuals who abuse our standards and values to undermine our way of life. "

Through these new rules we will:

* Create a presumption in favour of exclusion in respect of all those who have engaged in fostering, encouraging or spreading extremism and hatred;

* Provide that where an individual claims to have renounced their previous extremist views or actions the burden of proof is on them to demonstrate this is so and that this has been publicly communicated;

* Introduce changes that will allow us to exclude from the UK nationals of the European Economic Area, and their families, before they travel to this country where they constitute a threat to public security or policy;

* Work with other agencies and community groups to improve the evidence base underpinning our exclusion decisions to ensure that we identify those who pose the greatest threat to our society;

* Consider in all future cases whether it would be in the public interest to disclose that an individual has been excluded with a presumption to inform the public;

* Make greater use of UK watch lists to ensure that individuals who might fall to be excluded, should they seek to come to the UK, are identified and any future visa application is considered with full regard to previous extremist activities.

Since August 2005, 230 people have been excluded from entering the UK on suspicion of being a threat to national security or fostering extremism, including 79 preachers of hate.