UK Prevent referrals hit record high, Home Office says

UK Prevent referrals reached a record 10,293 in the year ending September 2025, the Home Office said, with extreme right-wing concerns making up the largest ideology-related category.

The Home Office said the total was the highest for a single year since reporting began in 2015 and called it a significant increase.

Prevent is part of the UK's counter-terrorism strategy and is intended to identify people in the early stages of radicalisation. Teachers, medical workers and others can refer concerns to police and local authorities for screening and possible safeguarding intervention, although the person must consent.

Extreme right-wing concerns accounted for 2,103 referrals, or 20 percent of the total, and rose 42 percent from the previous year. Children aged 11 to 15 were the largest group among all referrals and accounted for 35 percent of extreme right-wing ideology referrals.

Referrals linked to fascination with extreme violence accounted for eight percent of the total. The government attributed the increase to greater awareness of that risk after the 2024 Southport attack, in which teenager Axel Rudakubana murdered three young girls. Rudakubana had been referred repeatedly to Prevent, but the cases were closed because there was no clear ideology.

Concerns over Islamist extremism accounted for 860 referrals, or eight percent, down nine percent from the previous year. The government said more Islamist extremism referrals progressed to the safeguarding stage and said Islamist terrorism remains the primary terrorist threat in the UK.

The UK raised its terror threat level in April to severe, the second-highest level, meaning an attack is considered highly likely.