UK reports record numbers referred to anti-radicalization scheme

A record number of people were reported last year to the UK’s anti-radicalization Prevent program, the interior ministry said Thursday, with “extreme right-wing” concerns accounting for the most referrals related to an ideology. (AFP/File)

• The Prevent program is part of the country’s counter-terrorism strategy
• Teachers, medics and others can raise concerns about an individual at risk of radicalization

LONDON: A record number of people were reported last year to the UK’s anti-radicalization Prevent program, the interior ministry said Thursday, with “extreme right-wing” concerns accounting for the most referrals related to an ideology.
The Prevent program is part of the country’s counter-terrorism strategy and aims to identify and stop people in the early stages on the path toward becoming radicalized as extremists.
In the year ending September 2025, people made 10,293 referrals, the highest number for a single year since reporting began in 2015, the Home Office said, calling it a “significant increase.”
The UK in April raised its terror threat level to “severe” — the second-highest, meaning an attack is “highly likely” — with security officials citing the “broader Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorist threat.”
The largest number of referrals due to concerns about a specific ideology related to “extreme right wing” views, accounting for 20 percent of all referrals.
There were 2,103 such referrals — a sharp rise of 42 percent on the previous year.
The hard-right, anti-immigrant party Reform UK led by Nigel Farage has enjoyed electoral success recently, while far-right, anti-Muslim campaigners such as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, have bolstered support online.
Teachers, medics and others can raise concerns about an individual at risk of radicalization with police and local authorities, resulting in screening and potential safeguarding intervention — although the person has to consent to this.
Children aged 11 to 15 were the largest proportion of all referrals, and accounted for 35 percent of extreme right wing ideology referrals.
Referrals over fascination with extreme violence also rose, accounting for eight percent of the total.
The government attributed this to “increased awareness of the risk” of such cases, following the 2024 Southport attack, when teenager Axel Rudakubana murdered three young girls in a stabbing spree.
Rudakubana was referred repeatedly to Prevent, but the cases were closed over his lack of clear ideology.
Concerns over Islamist extremism accounted for 860 referrals or eight percent, down nine percent on the previous year.
The government said the total number of Islamist extremism referrals that progressed to the safeguarding stage had gone up, stressing: “Islamist terrorism remains the primary terrorist threat in the UK.”