The report is the third update/revision of the government's counter-terrorism strategy - Contest - which was first published in 2009.
According to the report, last year more than 10,000 people were killed by terrorists around the world. But, it notes, international law enforcement and military collaboration are changing the threats we face.
"The leadership group of al-Qaeda is now weaker than at any time since 9/11. It has played no role in recent political change in North Africa and the Middle East. Its ideology has been widely discredited and it has failed in all its objectives. Continued international pressure can further reduce its capability", says the report.
"But al-Qaeda continues to pose a threat to our own security; and groups affiliated to al-Qaeda, notably in Yemen and Somalia - have emerged over the past two years to be a substantial threat in their own right", it adds.
The paper goes on to say that, whilst al-Qaeda is responsible for only a small fraction of terrorist attacks, other groups, independent from al-Qaeda, but broadly sympathetic to its aims, continue to emerge and to conduct attacks around the world.
Against this backdrop, the report notes that there are four factors that will continue to enable terrorist groups to grow and to survive: conflict and instability; aspects of modern technology; a pervasive ideology; and radicalisation.
On the technology front, the report says that more needs to be done in implemented better border controls, as well as technology used at border crossings.
The gameplan now is to assess the UK's counter-terror plans against a set of key performance indicators, complemented by deeper evaluation of specific programmes.
The government will also publish an annual report on its counter-terrorism work.
The report goes on to say that international counter-terrorism work since 9/11 has made considerable progress in reducing the threats that the UK games.
"al-Qaeda is now significantly weaker than it has been for ten years. There are significant opportunities for us and our allies to make further progress in the next few months and years", it says.
The extremists, notes the report, are now using internet services such as Google Earth and Google Street view to plan their attacks, and information is being shared across private encrypted networks that are hard for the law enforcement agencies to detect, monitor and disrupt.
Other technologies such as cloud computing and Twitter are also being used by terrorist groups to communicate information to their members and supports, with the use of social networking and video sharing sites plus services becoming commonplace.
As reported previously by Infosecurity, al-Qaeda has been using bluetooth broadcasting to radiate terrorist material between users' mobiles.
The technology has been successfully used by the terrorist organisation to broadcast subversive promotional videos and material, including ritual beheadings, on a pocket-to-pocket basis between cellphone users.
According to Nico Prucha, an affiliated researcher with the Austrian Institute for International Affairs, social customs in many Middle Eastern countries mean that young people keep their mobile's bluetooth option 'discoverable' in the hope of exchanging details with members of the opposite sex.
Thanks to this, al-Qaeda has been using this option to broadcast subversive terrorist recruitment material on what he calls a pocket-to-pocket basis to great effect, effectively by-passing the internet and Western surveillance systems.