"The first priority of any Government is to ensure the security and safety of the nation and all members of the public"
The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Prime Minister

In relation to counter terrorism the Justice and Home Affairs team works in pursuit of the following objective: to counter the terrorist threat to the UK by working jointly with our French partners to deliver concrete outcomes across the four Ps of the UK Government’s Counter Terrorist Strategy, CONTEST.

The four main elements of CONTEST are:

• Pursue – to stop terrorist attacks
  
• Prevent – to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting violent extremism
  
• Protect – to strengthen our protection against terrorist attack
  
• Prepare – where an attack cannot be stopped, to mitigate its impact.

These four areas are the UK's main focus to help reduce the terrorist threat to the UK and our overseas interests. The full CONTEST strategy is a public document. An executive summary in French is also available.