UK Prevent referrals hit record high with many children under 10
Referrals to the UK's anti-extremism scheme Prevent reached a record high of 10,293, with a significant number involving children under the age of 10.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
Referrals to the UK government's anti-extremism programme Prevent have reached a record high, with new figures showing 10,293 referrals in the year to September 2025. That is a 39% increase on the previous year and the highest number since records began in 2015.
The data reveals a striking number of young people are being referred. The largest age group was 11 to 15 year olds, who made up around a third of all referrals where age was known. More than 3,000 children in that age bracket were referred. In addition, 393 referrals involved children aged 10 or younger.
Officials say the sharp rise can be partly explained by the aftermath of the Southport attack in July 2024, when Axel Rudakubana killed three girls at a dance class. That incident raised widespread concerns about extremism and violence, leading to more referrals from schools, colleges and universities. Educational establishments accounted for roughly a third of all referrals.
When it came to the nature of the concerns, more than half of the referrals were not linked to any specific ideology. Around a fifth were related to extreme right-wing ideology, and less than a tenth were linked to Islamist extremism. Almost 500 cases involved individuals who were described as fascinated by extreme violence or mass attacks.
The data also highlights the prevalence of mental health and neurodiversity issues among those referred. More than a third of the individuals had some form of mental health condition or neurodiversity. Where ethnicity was recorded, around two thirds of those referred were white. Among cases that were assessed and passed on to the Channel safeguarding programme, 76% were white.
The figures have prompted debate about the effectiveness and scope of Prevent, with some experts questioning whether the programme is being used to refer children who may be better served by mental health or social care services. The Home Office has said the increase shows that the system is working to identify and support vulnerable individuals before they are drawn into extremism.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, mapped by channel. Ordered by how many channels carried each claim.
| Claim | BBC One | ITV | Sky News |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referrals increased by 39% compared to the previous year. | |||
| Referrals to Prevent reached a record high of 10,293 in the year to September 2025. | |||
| 393 to almost 400 referrals were for children aged 10 or younger. | · | ||
| Around 20% of concerns were about extreme right-wing ideology, and more than half had no specific ideology identified. | · |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
Sky News focused on the headline numbers and the youngest age group, presenting the figures as breaking news with a sense of urgency. It did not provide analysis of the causes or breakdown by ideology, mental health or ethnicity, instead moving quickly to other news.
- “New figures show that there was 10,293 referrals in the year to September 2025.”
- “That is a 39% increase on the year before and the highest number of referrals in a single year since data began back in 2015.”
- “393 referrals were for children aged 10 years or younger to the Home Office's anti-extremism scheme, Prevent.”
BBC ONE West provided the most detailed analysis, including context from the Southport attack, breakdowns by ideology, mental health and ethnicity. It framed the rise as partly explained by the Southport attack and highlighted the high proportion of referrals with no ideology and with mental health issues.
- “the most striking thing about these statistics is that rise of more than a third in a single year of the number of people being referred to Prevent”
- “almost 400 of them were children under the age of 11”
- “more than half of the referrals were not linked to any ideology at all”
ITV1 presented the figures as a 10-year high with a focus on the proportion of children aged 11 to 15 and the ethnicity breakdown among those assessed for the Channel programme. It highlighted that 36% of known cases were children in that age group and that 76% of assessed cases were white.
- “referrals rose by 39% in the year to September”
- “11 to 15-year-olds made up the largest proportion with more than 3,000 children referred”
- “76% of people were white”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.