Referrals to Prevent up by nearly a third, Home Office figures show

In the year ending March 31, 2022, there were 6,406 referrals to Prevent – up from 4,915 in the previous year.

And referrals of those aged under 15 jumped by 29 per cent compared with the previous year to 1,829. Under-15s also accounted for the largest proportion of cases discussed at a Channel panel (480 of 1,486) and adopted as a case (299 of 804).

However, the Home Office said the overall increase was likely to have been driven by the associated impact of lifting public health restrictions that were in place to control the spread of Covid-19.

The education sector made the biggest number of referrals of those deemed vulnerable to a risk of radicalisation with 2,305 (36 per cent) – the highest proportion of referrals received from the sector since comparable data is available.

Police made the next highest with 1,808 referrals (28 per cent).

The Home Office said referrals received from the education sector in the year ending March 31, 2022, marks an increase compared with the previous reporting period, when referrals were at their lowest ever at 1,221 of 4,915 (25 per cent) – the only reporting period where education referrals accounted for less than 30 per cent of all those received.

The Home Office noted that public health restrictions in place due to Covid-19, especially the closure of education settings, likely “impacted the data” in both the years ending March 2021 and March 2022.

As in previous years, where gender was specified (6,403), most referrals were of males (5,725 or 89 per cent).

Those aged 15 to 20 again accounted for the largest proportion of referrals with 1,902 (30 per cent)

The number of referrals discussed at a Channel panel (1,486 or 23 per cent) and adopted as a Channel case (804 or 13 per cent) increased when compared with the year ending March 2021. However, the proportion of referrals being discussed at a Channel panel has decreased slightly (23 per cent this year compared with 27 per cent last year).

The proportion of referrals that were adopted as a Channel case remained similar – 13 per cent in both years.

The Home Office said for the year ending March 2022), analysts have improved the way in which a referral’s type of concern is presented.

It said: “Previously, referrals were grouped into one of four categories – ‘Islamist’, ‘extreme right-wing’, ‘mixed, unstable and unclear (MUU)’ and ‘other’.

“This year, the sub-categories that were aggregated into MUU in previous years are reported directly to provide a more granular view of types of concern.”

The category ‘vulnerability present but no ideology or counter terror risk’ accounted for the largest proportion of referrals (2,127 or 33 per cent) in the year ending March 2022. For the second year running, the number of referrals for extreme right-wing radicalisation concerns (1,309/20 per cent) is greater than referrals for Islamist concerns (1,027/16 per cent).

Of the 804 Channel cases, the most common were cases referred due to concerns regarding extreme right-wing radicalisation (339 or 42 per cent), followed by those with concerns regarding Islamist radicalisation (156/19 per cent) and those with a conflicted ideology (120/15 per cent).