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Government

Explore how government ‘rules’ communities with Prevent using laws and policies, the Home Office, and other government departments.

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PRESS RELEASE: UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination grades UK response on Prevent ‘unsatisfactory’

London – The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has formally assessed the UK Government’s response to its 2024 recommendations on the Prevent duty as “unsatisfactory”, in a letter [1] to the UK Government dated 26 August 2026 and published today by Prevent Watch. In August 2024 [2], the Committee recommended that the UK suspend the Prevent duty, adopt safeguards against profiling and discrimination, and establish independent monitoring and remedies for those affected. Reviewing the Government’s one-year progress report, the Committee regrets “the lack of detailed information on the concrete measures adopted by the State Party to revise the CONTEST and Prevent counter-terrorism strategies, including the Prevent duty, with a view to eliminating any discriminatory and disproportionate impact”. On the two bodies the Government presents as safeguards, the Home Office’s Standards and Compliance Unit and the Independent Prevent Commissioner, the Committee finds that “their mandate is primarily […]

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picture of the united nations headquarters in geneva for a story on reparations for uk prevent duty CategoriesLatest Expert Views Community Expert View Education Expert View Our Expert Views

UN racial discrimination committee grades UK progress on Prevent ‘unsatisfactory’

Two years ago, on 23 August 2024, the UN’s racial discrimination committee urged the UK to suspend the Prevent duty. Civil society organisations and independent experts had been saying for a decade that Prevent was discriminatory and not fit for purpose. But this time the verdict came from the body the UK agreed to answer to when it signed the UN’s racial discrimination treaty in 1966. Prevent Watch was one of eight organisations that had submitted evidence to the Committee ahead of its conclusions. One of our clients, a mother whose child had been referred by their school, flew to Geneva to tell the Committee in person what harm that referral had done to her family. The UK government had a year to respond. When it filed its reply in September 2025, it did not engage with the substance of what the UN Committee had found. It answered different questions […]

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The Critic: Will Burnham enable Islamic extremism?

Our new Prime Minister is desperate to present himself as an ordinary, football-watching, pint-sinking bloke. He even took to Instagram to tell us he calls a bread roll a “barm”, writes Arthur Reynolds for The Critic. No matter how patronising I find this latter-day Bill Shankly routine, if the polls are to be believed, it’s tempting some wavering voters back into the Labour fold. However, the working-class communities Burnham’s targeting may baulk at the company he’s kept. As Mayor of Greater Manchester and in opposition, he repeatedly embraced figures and organisations that, at best, promoted a polarising politics of Muslim victimhood. Read more on The Critic. Related… The Guardian: Burnham calls for ‘toxic’ Prevent strategy to be scrapped

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The Mirror: Terrorism referrals rocket as children account for one in three Prevent cases

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 Prevent cases. Latest data showed a huge 39% jump in overall referrals to Prevent, with concerns raised about nearly 10,000 people in the 12 months to September 2025. This was up from 7,279 a year earlier. And alarmingly more than a third 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 more than 400 were flagged because of a ‘fascination with extreme violence or mass casualty attacks’. Read more on The Mirror.  Related… Press Statement: Home Office Prevent statistics show that a record year is a record failure

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Press Statement: Home Office Prevent statistics show that a record year is a record failure

Prevent Watch responds to Home Office Prevent statistics published today. Home Office figures released today show a record 10,293 Prevent referrals — yet the majority of those referred had no ideology of any kind, and most cases were closed without any action. More than half of those referred were children, some of primary school age, and a striking proportion were autistic or living with mental ill-health. The programme has been turned inside out. The threat Prevent was built around — so-called ‘Islamist extremism’ — now barely features in its own caseload, while the largest group of people it processes fit no ideological category at all. Dr Layla Aitlhadj, Director, Prevent Watch, said: “These record numbers are a record failure — but instead of admitting it, the Government has relabelled these cases as ‘complex’, turning the programme’s failure into the justification for its expansion.” “Record referrals are proof the programme has […]

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Civil Service World: Home Office creates cross-government taskforce to bolster Prevent

The Home Office has set up a cross-government taskforce to look at existing multi-agency and safeguarding arrangements, and how they interact with Prevent in the wake of 2024’s Southport killings and the murder of MP David Amess. Details of the taskforce emerged this week in the department’s formal response to peer David Anderson’s Lessons for Prevent report, which was submitted to ministers in July last year. Among his recommendations to government last year, Prevent reviewer Lord Anderson said a Cabinet Office task force should be established to lead exploratory work into the possibility of formally connecting the programme to a broader safeguarding and violence-prevention system. Anderson said the work “cannot be done by any single line department” and that the taskforce should be “answerable to a senior Cabinet Office minister and the cabinet secretary. In her formal response to the report, which was published yesterday, home secretary Shabana Mahmood says […]

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BISA panel on uk security policy under reform CategoriesPrevious Events

BISA Roundtable: What would UK security policy look like under Reform?

What would Prevent look like under Reform? To discuss this, Dr Layla Aitlhadj joined Sophie Stowers from More in Common and Richard McNeil-Willson from the University of Edinburgh for a roundtable chaired by Larry Attree from Rethinking Security, as part of the British International Studies Association (BISA) conference. She said that the Prevent strategy is already open to abuse — by any government. Although a Reform government would be dangerous, the problem is Prevent because the infrastructure for harm already exists and has already been used. The question isn’t only what Reform would do with Prevent. It’s what any government can do — and already has done with it. If you would like us to speak about this topic, or any other topic related to Prevent, or run a workshop for your organisation, please contact us or fill in the form on this page.

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The Times: Home Office slashes funding for Prevent programme

Funding for the Prevent programme has plummeted since the pandemic despite Britain’s growing problem with extremism, according to figures that show parts of London and Birmingham have faced the biggest cuts. The amount spent by the Home Office on the government’s counterterrorism strategy fell from £41 million in 2021-22 to £25 million this financial year, a 39 per cent drop. Read more on The Times. Related… Read our Response to the Home Affairs Select Committee report on New Forms of Extremism

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The Week: Prevent and the changing landscape of British extremism

The UK’s counter-terrorism scheme Prevent has been blighted by well-publicised failures and accusations of prejudice. Is it fit for purpose? Developed after 9/11 and during the Iraq War, Prevent is the first of four pillars of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy for England, Scotland and Wales (together, they make up the “four Ps”: Prevent, Pursue, Protect, Prepare). It has three main objectives: tackling the ideological causes of terrorism, intervening early to stop people becoming radicalised, and enabling those who have engaged with terrorism to “disengage and rehabilitate”. Prevent is, in theory, not about getting people “into trouble”, but about helping those “susceptible to radicalisation” with early intervention. Even so, the programme has faced repeated criticisms, from a range of perspectives: both that it stigmatises Muslims, and is too soft on them; that it chills free speech; and that, ultimately, it fails to prevent terrorism. Read more on The Week.  Related… The […]

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