The daughter of Sir David Amess has welcomed the government’s confirmation of the terms of reference for an independent review into his murder.
Sir David was stabbed to death during a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, in 2021. His killer, Ali Harbi Ali, was a supporter of the so-called Islamic State and was given a whole-life sentence for his murder in 2022.
Solicitors for the Amess family have said the review into his murder “must provide answers”.
Sir David's daughter Katie Amess said, “For five years we have fought for full transparency and accountability and as a family we have been denied that at every step, with no inquest into my father’s death and no openness around how and why his killer was removed from the Prevent programme after just one meeting.
"This is not just about what happened to my dad. It is about protecting all members of the public and other members of Parliament.
"Lessons need to be learned from mistakes that were made so that so we can make sure this doesn’t happen again. That can only be done if we have the full facts to hand, full openness, honesty, and transparency. This review must bring the answers we need."
The purpose of the review is to examine if more could have been done or if opportunities were missed by the authorities to prevent Sir David's murder.
The government’s new terms of reference state that the review will look at “Lord Anderson’s report ‘Lessons for Prevent’; the Coroner’s inquest decision; documents disclosed by the Home Office and policing as part of the judicial and coronial processes; the judgment and sentencing remarks following the trial; and the Prevent Learning Review".
"It will also include interviews with relevant persons and documents supplied by all relevant agencies and organisations," the government said.
Lord Anderson's report was undertaken in response to Sir David's murder and the Southport murders by Axel Rudakubana in 2024.
Concluding his report, Lord Anderson said that in the case of Sir David's killer, Prevent “did not take its chance to make a difference”, adding that there had been a “string of failures” while acknowledging that it “will never be known” if a different approach could have saved the MP's life.
Prevent, Lord Anderson said, was “failing to detect potential terrorists or, when it does detect them, failing to prevent atrocities”.
