Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, Minister of State for Security at the Home Office and former senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, signalled a change in approach for the Home Office by conducting her first interview since her appointment for Islam Channel. She used the opportunity of this interview to suggest that the government will be adopting a different approach to counter-terrorism. She began the interview by re-stating the maxim that counter-terrorism can only be successful if it works with the Muslim community.

She announced through the course of the interview that pre-charge detentions, control order and stop and search are all to be reviewed as is the prevent programme as a whole. Dame Neville-Jones also announced the government’s plans to put forward 'a national integration strategy'.

Editorial comment: The relationship between British counter-terrorism and the British Muslim community has been a rocky one over the last decade. There have been periods of co-operation and mutual goodwill and also periods of strain and antagonism. These announcements and the interview as a gesture are important first steps from a Tory-LibDem government which will need to work on its relationship with the community in this particular policy area. It is very possible that the actions of the Home Office and other government departments can do more for a national integration strategy than any strategy itself.