Background to the report

CONTEST is the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy. It has four pillars.

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  • Prevent, which aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.
  • Pursue, which aims to stop terrorist attacks.
  • Protect, which aims to strengthen protections against a terrorist attack.
  • Prepare, which aims to mitigate the impact of a terrorist attack.

The Prevent programme has existed in some form since 2003 but has changed over time. Its current objectives are:

  • tackling the ideological causes of terrorism
  • intervening early to support people susceptible to radicalisation
  • enabling people who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate

This report focuses on Prevent’s objective of intervening early. The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 introduced the Prevent duty, requiring specified authorities to identify and refer individuals believed to be susceptible to radicalisation. The Act also requires local authorities to establish Channel panels. These are local multi-agency panels that assess cases and arrange support for people at risk of radicalisation. There are currently 159 Channel panels operating across England and Wales, each with members from Counter Terrorism Policing, local authorities, social care and health services. Prevent referrals have increased significantly in recent years.

Scope of the report

This report examines the extent to which the Prevent programme is meeting its objective to intervene early and support people susceptible to radicalisation. It looks at Prevent’s operation in England and Wales only and examines:

  • the Home Office’s design and implementation of the programme in its current form
  • local delivery of Prevent
  • the Home Office’s oversight, monitoring and evaluation activities

Data visualisation

The Prevent system is complex, involving multiple stages and delivery partners. We have developed an interactive visualisation to map Prevent’s referral and support pathway. It shows the steps from an initial referral, through Counter Terrorism Policing assessment and Channel panel discussions, to the provision of Channel support.

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The data visualisation is not fully accessible. If you can’t access the information in this format, contact us on +44(0)2077987264 or enquiries@nao.org.uk to request an accessible version.

Conclusions

Prevent plays an important role in the UK’s counter-terrorism system by seeking to identify and support individuals susceptible to radicalisation before they become involved in terrorism. We found evidence that the programme has a positive impact on those who receive support, and Channel panels demonstrate strong multi-agency collaboration and accountability.

However, rising referral volumes and an increasing proportion of referrals without a clear, dominant extremist ideology, are placing growing pressure on the system. Workloads are increasing with more borderline cases being discussed by panels, increasing the risk of inconsistent decision-making between local authorities. The Home Office has not done enough to understand or respond to these pressures, jeopardising the sustainability of the programme.

Prevent is not an expensive programme, particularly compared with the economic and human costs of a terrorist attack. However, it is inherently difficult to prove that it reduces the incidence of terrorism. For this reason, it is not possible to conclude in the conventional way on value for money.

We have identified clear opportunities for the Home Office to increase Prevent’s impact. These include enhancing its own performance monitoring and risk management, agreeing a unified view of case thresholds, and increasing its knowledge of how the costs of Prevent fall on local authorities and other delivery partners. There is little justification for the level of underspending Prevent has seen in recent years, in a context in which the Home Office acknowledges local workload pressures and has delayed some of its own research.

As the Home Office considers the future scope and eligibility criteria of Prevent, it must recognise that the programme is already supporting many individuals who do not fit traditional conceptions of a terrorist threat. If any of these individuals are to be supported elsewhere in future, it will need to ensure that alternative services
have the capacity, skills and resources to support them.

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Press release

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