More than 3,500 kids had been reported to authorities’s anti-extremism scheme Prevent within the final yr as figures present referrals hit report 8,778

More than 3,500 children were referred to the Government’s anti-extremism programme Prevent over the previous year. 

There were a record 8,778 referrals across all age groups in 2024/25, a rise of 27 per cent.

Children aged 11 to 15 accounted for the largest proportion of cases (3,192 or 36 per cent), followed by 16-17-year-olds (1,178, or 13 per cent).

There were 345 referrals for children aged 10 or under.

Extreme right-wing ideology was the most common concern, accounting for 21 per cent, higher than Islamic extremism, which accounted for a tenth.

The proportion of referrals for extreme right-wing concerns increased by two per cent year on year, while the proportion for Islamist extremism fell slightly. 

Critics have previously accused ‘politically correct’ Prevent officials of diverting too many resources towards suspected far-right extremists despite Islamist radicals posing a ‘far greater threat’. 

The programme has also come under fire for failing to stop future terrorists, including Reading knifeman Khairi Saadallah, Plymouth gunman Jake Davison and Ali Harbi Ali – who murdered Tory MP Sir David Amess.

More people suspected of having an obsession with violence have been referred to Prevent since the Southport knife attack, it emerged earlier this week. 

Axel Rudakubana murdered Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and attempted to murder 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on 29 July last year.

Prevent director Cathryn Ellsmore told an inquiry into the atrocity: ‘What we have seen post the Southport attack is a sharp increase in referrals to Prevent where there are concerns about violent fixation.’

Ms Ellsmore said she did not know whether this increase was due to officials making more referrals because their ‘risk tolerance’ had fallen since the stabbings, or whether there had been a ‘previous underestimate of the cohort’.

Rudakubana had been referred to Prevent three times but did not meet the threshold for further intervention.

Just over a third of Prevent referrals last year had at least one mental health or neurodiversity condition recorded.

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) was the most common condition recorded, in 14 per cent (1,226) of all referrals.

Prevent, which is run by the Home Office, aims to stop terror attacks, with officials working with local authorities and community organisations to seek to deradicalise those deemed to have concerning ideologies. 

But the flagship £49million-a-year scheme has faced criticism over its failures at stopping people who are referred to the programme from becoming terrorists. 

They include Plymouth gunman Jake Davison, who murdered five people during a 12-minute rampage through the city in August 2021.

The 22-year-old, who was obsessed with guns and online ‘intel’ culture, was referred to his Prevent scheme by his mother Maxine in November 2016.

He went on to fatally shoot her before going on to kill Sophie Martyn, three, her father, Lee, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66.

ISIS fanatic Ali Harbi Ali, who fatally stabbed Tory MP Sir David Amess outside a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea in 2021, was referred to Prevent in 2014 before his case was closed a year later due to the belief he did not pose a serious threat.

Libyan terrorist Khairi Saadallah, 27, who murdered friends James Furlong, 36, Dr David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, in a Reading Park had earlier been referred to Prevent over fears he could carry out a ‘London Bridge-style attack’.

He was found by officials to lack a ‘fixed ideology’, according to reports.

Another terrorist referred to Prevent was Usman Khan, 28, who fatally knifed Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, during a prisoner rehabilitation event next to London Bridge.

An inquest heard his Prevent officers had ‘no specific training’ in handling terrorists.

The Prevent Strategy was launched in 2006 under the New Labour government.

The home secretary of the time, John Reid, warned Britain was facing ‘probably the most sustained period of severe threat since the end of the second world war’ due to a new breed of ‘unconstrained international terrorists’.

A year before, on July 7, 2005, four suicide bombers struck London’s transport network, killing 52 people and injuring over 770 others.

Prevent, which has been reformed several times since its initial launch, has the aim of stopping people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. It is intended to tackle the ideological causes of terrorism and intervene early to support people susceptible to radicalisation.

Under the programme, local authority staff and other professionals such as doctors, teachers and social workers have a duty to flag concerns about an individual being radicalised or drawn into a terrorism.

Less serious reports may be sent to council services, which could include parenting support for families whose children have been watching inappropriate videos online.

Serious reports are forwarded on to Prevent’s Channel stage, at which a panel of local police, healthcare specialists and social workers meeting monthly will consider the case.

Of the 8,778 referrals made to Prevent in the year to March 2025, 1,727 individuals were discussed at a Channel panel and 1,472 were adopted as a Channel case.