PROJECT CHAMPION AND SURVEILLANCE OF THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY IN BIRMINGHAM

That this House views with concern the implementation of an initiative, codenamed Project Champion, whose principle function is to monitor extremists that the police and MI5 suspect to be living among Birmingham's Muslim community; commends the recent article which appeared in the Guardian newspaper on 5 June 2010 whose investigations revealed that surveillance cameras have been installed at 81 sites without consultation, after being requested by West Midlands police counterterrorism unit more than two years ago; notes that the current specification includes around 150 automatic number plate reading cameras, 40 of which have been classified as covert and are thought to be concealed in walls and trees by the side of the road; further notes that the initiative is funded by resources channelled through the Terrorism and Allied Matters fund administered by the Association of Chief Police Officers whose brief is explicitly to fight terrorism; is mindful of the fact that Birmingham is the only example, to date, where this technology has been employed to monitor a community; believes that this initiative constitutes a grave infringement of civil liberties; and calls on the Government to launch an immediate consultation with representatives of the local community into the scope and scale of this initiative and to give assurance that the cameras will not be activated until these consultations have taken place and the feelings of the local communities have been made known.