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Our latest expert views on the use of Prevent and its implications for communities, education, health and – importantly – children.

AI-driven surveillance and Prevent CategoriesLatest Expert Views Community Expert View Our Expert Views

AI-Powered Surveillance and the Prevent strategy

“When states transfer more power to private entities, the public loses. The government becomes a body designed to service the needs and interests of profit-seeking private entities rather than its citizens. Worse, citizens lose much of their power to hold governments accountable: the government abdicates and transfers responsibility to private actors against which citizens have fewer rights.”[1] This piece examines the creeping infrastructure of AI-powered surveillance in the UK and its implications for the Prevent strategy’s pre-crime framework. Digital ID, Palantir and Oracle In January of this year, the UK government dropped its plans for a mandatory digital ID. This came after almost 3 million signatures on a parliamentary petition opposing digital IDs.[2] Several corporations were in talks of implementing the digital ID apparatus. Palantir Technologies, named after the all-seeing stone in The Lord of the Rings,[3] dropped out of the bid back in October, citing a lack of public […]

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Piles of folders for article on Fulford Inquiry CategoriesLatest Expert Views Community Expert View Education Expert View Health Expert View Our Expert Views

Southport Inquiry highlights how Prevent deprofessionalises public services

The Southport Inquiry embodies our warning that the Prevent duty has created conditions in which teachers, social workers and other frontline professionals are increasingly unable to act on their own expertise, and are required to defer to a counter-terrorism framework, writes Dr Layla Aitlhadj. In January of 2025, then Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced there would be a public inquiry into the Southport attack that took the lives of 3 young girls, injured many more and left their families and the nation in grief. Following the trial of the perpetrator, Axel Rudukubana, it had become public knowledge that he had been known to several agencies and referred to Prevent three times. The inquiry was described by the Home Secretary as a way to “get to the truth of what happened and what needs to change”. The next day Prime Minister Keir Starmer re-emphasised the fact that the perpetrator had been […]

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Picture of man's hands with laptop and statistics for article on latest Home Office statistics on the Prevent strategy in the UK CategoriesCommunity Expert View Latest Expert Views Our Expert Views

Revealed: Babies and Muslims lost in a flood of Home Office statistics on Prevent strategy

Prevent Watch Director Layla Aitlhadj draws out the real implications of the latest Home Office statistics in relation to the Prevent strategy – here are three important things the latest referrals numbers tell us. Each year the Home Office publishes statistics on Prevent referrals in the name of transparency. However, each year Prevent Watch has warned that these statistics are not only misleading but reinforce the criminalisation of children and increase community tensions. Shortly after the publication of the statistics for 2024/2025 the media highlighted the high numbers of referrals for right-wing “extremism”, but it is important to consider two aspects before they slip under the proverbial carpet: that infants – yes, babies! – are being referred to counter-terrorism; and that high numbers of right-wing referrals do not justify Prevent by any means. 1. Children from 0-10 years are being referred to counter-terrorism Since 2015, the Home Office has presented […]

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Prevent duty in Scotland CategoriesLatest Expert Views Community Expert View Education Expert View Health Expert View Our Expert Views

How is the Prevent duty in Scotland implemented and who is standing against it?

Legal guidance compels the Prevent duty in Scotland so public authorities must implement the policy. A closer look at key differences in their approach provides insights for action and directs us to the organisations resisting the Prevent duty in Scotland. By Zara W. Tahir National security, and by extension, counter terrorism, remains a reserved matter in Scotland, and therefore under Westminster control.  However, one arm of the counter-terorrism strategy, the Prevent duty, requires the cooperation of public institutions north of the border, many of which are devolved.  This tension between reserved and devolved powers has led to key differences in how the Prevent duty is implemented in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK, particularly England. Scottish MPs voice concerns with Prevent  In 2015, the Counterterrorism and Security Act was debated for five days in the UK Parliament. MPs raised concerns about its application in Scotland; these criticisms of the […]

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Picture of high school students for Prevent duty in education CategoriesLatest Expert Views Community Expert View Education Expert View Our Expert Views

Challenging the Prevent duty in securitised schools

Our recent webinar explored the Prevent duty in securitised schools, the recent aspects that further strengthen Prevent and what Prevent Watch can do to challenge referrals.  By Mariam A Schools in the UK have increasingly become sites of securitisation, rather than safe places for learning and free expression. One of several changes that has facilitated this in the last decade is the introduction of Prevent – part of the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST – as a statutory duty for educators. This presence of the Prevent duty in education has contributed to the increased security and surveillance in classrooms, which has been flagged as a concern by several human rights groups as well as the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education. These concerns are shared by Prevent Watch. In our recent webinar, we explored how Prevent has contributed to […]

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Picture of fried chicken for a story criticizing the Prevent strategy in the UK and Channel deradicalisation for children with unmet mental health needs CategoriesLatest Expert Views Education Expert View Health Expert View Our Expert Views

Why the Channel programme linked to the Prevent strategy is the junk food of public safety

In 2005, when Jamie Oliver exposed what really went into chicken nuggets on his School Dinners series, parents were horrified. What they thought was a proper hot meal turned out to be processed scraps, stripped of nutrition and bulked out with additives. The same reaction should meet the Channel programme. Promoted as safeguarding against radicalisation, it is in reality a highly processed product: stripped of genuine social care and support, repackaged with the additives of counter-terrorism, and sold back to us as if it were the nourishment required for a healthy society. According to the Home Office statistics, 5,014 individuals have been referred to Channel for ‘de-radicalisation’ since 2015. A Channel intervention is linked to the Prevent strategy in the UK. Out of a total number (58,127) of Prevent referrals as a result of the strategy, just 8.6% are deemed to be at risk of ‘radicalisation’ and deemed suitable for […]

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Picture for article on pre-crime policies of a man wearing a Muslim energy shirt CategoriesLatest Expert Views Community Expert View Education Expert View Our Expert Views

Like Prevent, pre-crime policies used in the past created the notion of ‘thought crime’

Pre-crime policies in Japan and Russia prior to World War 2 reveal uncanny similarities to the UK’s Prevent strategy and relied on the same social elements to be acceptable.  By Zara W. Tahir The Prevent strategy has often been referred to as a ‘pre-crime’ strategy. Pre-crime is defined as a grey area where a crime has not yet occurred, and yet is implicitly understood to possibly occur. Its origins lie in science fiction. A study by Lucia Zedner at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies states that pre-crime, “… has a tendency to validate developments that ought properly to be subject to intense debate. It licences changes in procedural arrangements, as well as in substantive law, that erode civil liberties and permit intrusive coercive measures to be imposed ahead of wrongdoing.” People express surprise that such a policy has arisen in the UK. But Prevent is not without precedent […]

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picture of secondary school class in story about birmingham trojan horse affair racism and prevent duty uk CategoriesLatest Expert Views

‘Fear of being called racist’ and the Birmingham Trojan Horse Affair: The Racist Politics of Muslim Integration

The “fear of being called racist” during the Birmingham Trojan Horse Affair did not stop the DfE acting by introducing the Prevent duty in 2015. Around the same time, the first reports on group-based sexual exploitation of children were received by the DfE – and it failed to act. Now, a “fear of being called racist” is being used as their excuse – does this fear even exist, or are deeper racist politics at play? There has been a steady drumbeat, in right-wing and liberal media alike, about the failure of British Muslims to integrate. This drumbeat warns of self-segregated lives insulated from mainstream values. This is often fed by official reports that are occasioned by media ‘scares’ and used to align public policy with media-driven concerns highlighting threats to public safety. Among the most potent of such concerns are those involving children and young people. On the one hand, […]

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CategoriesLatest Expert Views Previous Events

Prevent Watch reports back from Northern Race Equality Conference

On the 9th of April Prevent Watch was invited by Race Equality Network and Ella Baker School to deliver a workshop at the Northern Race Equality Conference held in Bradford. The event brought together a wide range of organisations, academics, and practitioners committed to addressing structural racism across the UK. Prevent policy reinforces structural racism The inclusion of Prevent in this forum reflected a growing consensus that the Prevent duty has entrenched racial inequality in public services. The fact that this conference was held in the North of England is of particular relevance given the long history of anti-racist organising in the region, from community resistance to the National Front in the 1970s and 80s, to the landmark Bradford 12 trial in 1982, when a group of young Asian men were acquitted of preparing petrol bombs in self-defence against racist violence. Northern cities like Bradford, Manchester and Sheffield, which are […]

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Screengrab of Whatsapp case mother with son referred to Prevent CategoriesCommunity Expert View Latest Expert Views Our Expert Views

Challenging Prevent injustice – from the bathroom window!

I recently reconnected with a mother I had supported a few years ago. She shared that she had never forgotten the help Prevent Watch provided her. What she didn’t realise is that the feeling was mutual; I hadn’t forgotten her either. In fact, I often tell her story to empower others. You may have heard the saying that there are two courts of justice; the court of law and the court of public opinion. But in this case, there was an unexpected third court: the court of the bathroom window. When she first reached out to me, this mother was being relentlessly harassed by Prevent officers. Her son had been referred to Prevent, and they were pressuring her to consent to the supposedly voluntary “deradicalisation” programme, Channel. The officers kept showing up at her front door unannounced, creating a sense of urgency, but never properly articulating their concerns about why […]

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