bbcA record number of referrals to the government’s Prevent counter-terrorism program were made in the year to March 2025, according to new data.
A total of 8,778 referrals were made, 27% more than the 6,922 the previous year.
The majority of referrals were made for people who “did not have an identified ideology”: 56%.
This was followed by far-right ideology at 21%, and then Islamist extremism at 10%.
Children between 11 and 15 years old represented the largest proportion of referrals in which the individual’s age was known, at 36%.
Prevent is the government’s plan to divert people from terrorism.
In October, an investigation into the Southport attack, which left three children dead, revealed there had been a sharp increase in referrals to Prevent, where there were “concerns of a violent fixation” since the July 2024 attack.
Axel Rudakubana, the perpetrator of the attack, had been referred to Prevent three times, but according to the investigation he had not met the threshold for further intervention because there was no evidence that he had a fixed ideology.
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