Record number of referrals to anti-extremism Prevent programme
Extreme right-wing ideology higher than concerns over Islamist extremism
Referrals made to the Government’s anti-extremism scheme Prevent rose by 27% over the past year, with extreme right-wing ideology the most common concern.
New figures published by the Home Office showed there were 8,778 referrals to Prevent in 2024/25, the highest number in a single year since data began in 2015.
The total is up 27% from 6,922 referrals in 2023/24.
Extreme right-wing ideology was the most common concern among referrals, accounting for 21% (1,798) of the total, higher than those related to Islamist extremism (10% or 870).
The proportion of referrals for extreme right-wing concerns increased slightly year on year, from 19% to 21%, while the proportion for Islamist extremism fell from 13% to 10%.
But the majority of referrals with a specified concern were made for individuals with “no identified ideology,” at 56%.
Of the 8,759 referrals to Prevent for which the age of the individual was known, 11- to 15-year-olds accounted for the largest proportion (3,192, or 36%), followed by 16-to 17-year-olds (1,178, or 13%).
There were 345 referrals (4% of the total) for children aged 10 or under.
Just over a third of Prevent referrals in 2024/25 (2,955 of 8,778, or 34%) had at least one mental health or neurodiversity condition recorded, Home Office figures show.
Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) was the most common condition recorded, in 14% (1,226) of all referrals.
Around two-thirds of referrals (5,823 or 66%) had no mental health or neurodiversity information recorded, either because no concern was identified or the relevant information was not captured.
Details on ethnicity were published for the first time.
Where referrals had ethnicity specified, 65% (2,747) were recorded as white, 19% (789) Asian, 8% (320) black and 8% (338) as other.
In October, an inquiry into the Southport attack – in which three children were killed – heard there had been a sharp rise in referrals to Prevent where there were “concerns about violent fixation” since the July 2024 attack.
Axel Rudakubana, who carried out the killings, had been referred to Prevent three times, but the inquiry heard he had not met the threshold for further intervention because there was no evidence that he had a fixed ideology.
Former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told parliament in January that she had ordered her department to review the thresholds for Prevent referrals, and said that referrals for Islamist extremism have previously been “too low”.
A review carried out under the former Conservative government by William Shawcross, published in 2023, also criticised Prevent for putting too much emphasis on the far right – and called on the government to focus more on so-called Islamist extremism, suggesting that the threat was being downplayed for fear of causing offence.
The report was boycotted and then widely rejected by critics of the programme.
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