A record number of people have been referred to the government’s anti-terror programme in England and Wales, with a 39% rise over the last year, including a 20% rise in referrals for extreme rightwing ideology, according to official data released on Thursday.
A total of 10,293 referrals – up from 7,408 – were made to the Prevent programme in the year to September 2025, which is the highest number since records began 11 years ago.
Those referrals to the scheme, which aims to stop people turning to terrorism, involved 9,957 people suspected of extremist or violent tendencies.
The rise comes after officials noted a sustained and significant increase in referrals since the Southport attack in July 2024.
Axel Rudakubana, who killed three girls at a dance class and tried to murder eight others, as well as two adults, was referred to Prevent three times but his case was closed over a lack of clear ideology.
The figures show 2,103 Prevent referrals were because of concerns over extreme rightwing ideology – 20% of the total – up from 1,480 in the previous 12 months. There were 860 referrals (8%) about Islamist extremism, down from 945 over the previous year.
Where age was known, 11- to 15-year-olds made up the largest proportion of Prevent referrals (3,655 or 36%), followed by 16- to 17-year-olds (1,379 or 13%), the Home Office said.
A total of 818 referrals (8%) related to fascination with extreme violence or mass casualty attacks, 95 (1%) were for “incel” extremism – meaning “involuntary celibate”, the term given to a strand of misogynist ideology – and 32 (0.3%) for leftwing extremism, while 353 (3%) were for multiple ideologies with no dominant ideology identified.
More than half (56%) of referrals were for individuals with no identified ideology.
The Home Office has also published data showing the ethnicity of referrals to the Prevent programme, although the data is incomplete because it is not mandatory on the referral form.
Of 5,315 referrals, 3,600 (68%) were white, 949 (18%) were Asian, 401 (8%) were black and 365 (7%) were listed as “other”.
After initial screening and assessment, Prevent referrals who are deemed at risk of radicalisation may be passed to a multi-agency “channel panel”.
Chaired by local authorities, these panels determine the extent of a person’s susceptibility to radicalisation, and whether a tailored package of support is necessary to address the risk.
Of the 1,100 referrals taken on as a channel case in the year to September 2025 where ethnicity was known, 835 (76%) were white, 159 (14%) were Asian, 59 (5%) were black and 47 (4%) were “other”.
Nearly one in five of those referred to the programme – 18% – were autistic, while 36% had at least one mental health or neurodiversity condition listed on their Prevent record.
Jacob Smith, the team leader on freedom of expression and belief at Rights & Security International (RSI), said this was a shocking number of autistic people who now have long-lasting police records under a secretive programme. “There is no excuse for unleashing this much suspicion against autistic people,” he said.
The security minister, Dan Jarvis, said the record number of referrals underlined the scale of the challenge faced in protecting the public from terrorism.
“The statistics also show the crucial role the programme plays in keeping the public safe, with more than 6,000 people moved away from violent ideologies that could have resulted in harm to themselves or others.
“We will continue to improve Prevent to ensure it has the tools it needs to do its job of stopping people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. We all have a role to play in keeping each other safe and spotting the signs of radicalisation.”
