The Protective Security for Mosques Scheme is provided free of charge by the Home Office to protect mosques and associated Muslim community centres.

Who can apply

You can apply to the scheme if you are:

• a mosque that is currently in operation
• an associated Muslim community centre (a faith-based community centre that is run by or located near a mosque and where regular worship takes place)place

You will also need to be a registered charity (or exempt from registering as a charity).

You should apply if:

• you have experienced hate crime at your mosque or community centre
• you feel that your mosque or community centre is vulnerable to hate crime
• there has been hate crime in your local area towards othermembers places of worshipyour or people who attend themcommunity

What the scheme covers

You can apply for one or both of these security measures:

• physical security measures, such as CCTV, intruder alarms, secure fencing and gates
• security personnel services (guarding), providing visiblestatic or roaming security staff at your location

YourIf your application is successful, your site will be surveyed to assess your security needs and what measures are appropriate. Any measures suggested in the survey will need Home Office approval.

All security measures are provided for free by the Home Office. For some physical security measures, this includes any maintenance costs for one year from the installation date.

How to apply

You should only complete one application form for each mosque or community centre in each round of the scheme.centre.

If your mosque and community centre are located on the same site, you only need to complete one application form.

You will need to provide details about your site including:

• the name and address of your mosque or community centre (include any other names your site is known by)
• the registered charity number of your organisation,organisation or a letter confirming your organisation’s exemption from registering as a charitycharity, for example if you are registered as a community interest company (CIC)
• the contact details of a responsible person who will be your site’s point of contact
• a summary of any security concerns or hate crime experienced at your mosque or community centre, and the impact these have on the people who use it

You must provide accurate information on your form.

You can save your application form and come back to it later.

Apply now

Application guidance

To help with the assessment of your application, you should:

• clearly explain why your place of worship and its community are at risk of hate crimecrime, (incident)for example mention specific incidents or threats received by your site or people using the site
• provide detailed evidence of any hate crime incidentsincidents, - for example,example photosphotos, ofpolice graffitireports orand policedates reportsof (evidence)incidents
• describe how these incidents have affected your communitycommunity, - for example,example fear or reduced attendance (impact)

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Successful

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your application

PlaceWe ofcheck worship:all Mosqueapplications 1

Incident:to Inthe MarchProtective 2024,Security offensivefor graffitiMosques wasScheme sprayedto onmake sure organisations meet the frontstandards wallrequired offor the Mosque.scheme. TheThis graffitiis includedknown specificas anti-Muslimdue rhetoric.diligence.

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• photosyour ofapplication theis graffiti
• policesuccessful, reportwe andwill crimecarry referenceout number
• statementongoing fromchecks ato worshippermake explainingsure theyyour feltorganisation unsafecontinues andto stoppedmeet attendingthese prayers

Impact:standards. theYou incidentcan causedread distress in the community,standards especially among elders and children. Attendance dropped by 30% in thethe protective weekssecurity followingfor thefaith incident.

Unsuccessfulcommunities applicationcode example

Place of worship: Mosque 2conduct.

Incident:When Wewe feelhave unsafecompleted due to general tensions in the area. We experience people throwing litter on our site.

Evidencechecks, provided:we none.

Impact:will nottell explainedyou andthe nooutcome materialof consequencesyour outlined.

Why it was unsuccessful: the application did not include any specific incidents or evidence relating to these incidents, and theyexplain only listed anti-social behaviour as a concern. They also did not include an explanation of how the communitynext is affected.steps.

Things to consider

If you install physical security measures yourself, you will not be reimbursed. MeasuresAll approved security measures must be installed by the Home Office approved supplier (or their chosen sub-contractors).

You may need planning permission or other official approvals, for example, for listed buildings. Planning restrictions and permissions are not coveredmanaged by the scheme. Planning permission is the responsibility of the applicant and you will need to check if further permissions are needed for the work to be carried out.

If your application is successful

If your application is successful and your security measures have been installed, you can apply to the scheme again 12 months after the final measure was installed.

You can use the same application form. In your application, you must:

• provide evidence of any hate crime your site has experienced since the security measures were installed
• explain any security risks or vulnerabilities that still remain at your site

This will help us assess whether further security measures are needed.

Data protection

To find out more about how we process and protect your information, and your rights in relation to this, see the privacy information notice.