Stephen Rimmer

Stephen Rimmer was (from November 2007 - February 2009) the Director of Prevent and of the RICU counter terror propaganda unit, part of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism set up by the Home Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government. He was succeeded by Debbie Gupta.

Background

A biographical note issuesd at a Prevent meeting in Aberdeen in January 2009 notes:

Stephen Rimmer joined the Home Office in 1984 and worked in a variety of policy posts there and in Northern Ireland Office until 1993. Having been involved in the Prison Service bid to run Strangeways Prison after the 1990 riot, he was Deputy Governor there for two years, before working in the Cabinet Office as Director of the Central Drugs Co-ordination Unit until 1998. He subsequently became Governor of first Gartree Prison in Leicestershire (an all lifer establishment) and then Wandsworth Prison (a large Victorian local prison).

He became Director of Policing Policy in the Home Office in January 2002, with responsibility for all areas of police policy work other than the Standards Unit. He joined the Metropolitan Police Service in October 2005 as a member of its Management Board and as Director of Strategy, Modernisation and Performance. In November 2007 he returned to the Home Office to become Director of the Prevent Strategy, and of the Research Information and Communications Unit, within the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism.

Resources

• Stephen Rimmer, UK Security and Counter-Terrorism: Preventing Extremism: The Challenge for London Presentation to London Community Safety Partnership 12 February 2008
• Stephen Rimmer, CONTEST in Wales - Setting the Scene - Stephen Rimmer, Director Prevent and RICU, Office for Security and Counter Terrorism CONTEST in Wales: A Home Office/Welsh Assembly Government/WECTU Event which will provide senior stakeholders across Wales with an opportunity to discuss developments in Wales and help shape the PREVENT delivery plan. Location of Event: Metropole Hotel, Llandrindod Wells, Date of Event: 14/01/2009
• Stephen Rimmer Allegations made in the Panorama programme 'Muslim First - British Second' on Monday 16 February, 17 February 2009, accessed 1 April 2009.