Referrals to the government's terrorism prevention programme hit a record high last year, with concerns about extreme right-wing ideology accounting for a fifth of cases. New data shows a 39% jump in overall referrals to Prevent, with concerns raised about nearly 10,000 people in the 12 months to September 2025, up from 7,279 a year earlier.
Children and ideology
More than a third of referrals related to children aged between 11 and 15. Home Office figures showed 20% of all referrals were in relation to 'extreme right-wing' ideologies, more than double those linked to alleged Islamic extremism. The data shows 56% of cases had no fixed ideology attached, while over 400 were flagged because of a 'fascination with extreme violence or mass casualty attacks'.
Official response
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said: “The record number of referrals to Prevent and the increase in the threat level underlines the scale of the challenge we face in protecting the public from terrorism.”
Prevent has come under scrutiny after it emerged that Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was referred three times when he was 13 and 14, but the cases were closed earlier than they should have been. Home Office figures showed there were 9,957 individuals referred to Prevent in a year, with a total of 10,293 referrals made. Nine in 10 of those referred were male, while 68% of cases where ethnicity was recorded were white, alongside 18% Asian, 8% Black and 7% classed as 'other'.
Channel cases and impact
There was a rise in the number of cases escalated, with 1,810 people adopted as a Channel case, meaning they were identified as a higher-level threat. Extreme right-wing ideologies accounted for 756 of these cases, while concerns about Islamic extremism were behind 212.
Prevent is an early-intervention programme designed to steer people away from terrorism. Last year a review by Lord David Anderson said it must focus on changing people obsessed with extreme violence, even if there is no evidence of an ideological motive. This came after Rudakubana's teachers warned three times that he was obsessed with violence, but the case was closed each time due to lack of identifiable motive. In July 2024 he killed three young girls - Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7 - and attempted to kill eight more children and two adults.
The data shows 6,000 people have been diverted away from terrorism since 2015. Mr Jarvis said: “The statistics also show the crucial role the programme plays in keeping the public safe, with more than 6000 people moved away from violent ideologies that could have resulted in harm to themselves or others. We will continue to improve Prevent to ensure it has the tools it needs to do its job of stopping people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. We all have a role to play in keeping each other safe and spotting the signs of radicalisation.”
