ANNEX B: PREVENT
Prevent strand
310. The aim of the Prevent strand of CONTEST is to safeguard and support vulnerable individuals to stop them becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Individuals are referred by the police, prisons, healthcare and education practitioners, as well as the public. Referrals are assessed by Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) and a multi-agency panel to consider risk and, where appropriate, develop a support package (for example, this might include providing mental health support or assistance in finding employment). Within Prevent, the Channel programme is a voluntary, confidential programme, supporting those most at risk of radicalisation. Prevent referrals to the Channel programme from police and prisons, healthcare and education practitioners, and the public are assessed by CTP and by a multi-agency panel to consider risk, and where appropriate develop a support package. The majority of Prevent referrals for both Right-Wing Extremism and Islamist extremism come from education and the police.[1]
311. The process for individuals referred to Prevent, and subsequently assessed and supported by Channel, is ideology-agnostic. At the time of Prevent's inception, the focus was primarily on Islamist extremism. In the six-year period between 2012 and 2018, there has been an increase in the number being referred to the Channel programme for Extreme Right-Wing (XRW) concerns, as illustrated in the graph below:[2]
As already detailed in the earlier 'Prevent strand' section of the Report, there is no correlation between the number of individuals referred to the Prevent programme, and the number of individuals who are Subjects of Interest (SOIs) and on the radar of the counter-terrorism community.
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