Counter-terrorism: Children and Young People
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Prevent duty in reducing radicalisation among children and young people in the long term.
Answered by Dan Jarvis
The Home Office works continually to enhance and strengthen our approach to preventing radicalisation among children and young people. Each year, a significant number of young people are referred to Prevent for support. In the year ending 31 March 2024, individuals aged 11 to 15 accounted for the largest proportion of the 6,884 referrals to Prevent (2,729; 40%) where age was known, and a slightly larger proportion of both those discussed at a Channel Panel (374; 42%) and those adopted as a Channel case (254; 50%).
To assess the effectiveness of the programme, a Channel evaluation programme launched in April 2025 and has begun collecting data on outcomes for participants of Channel in England and Wales. The evaluation has also been expanded to Prevent multi-agency panels (PMAP) in Scotland. The evaluation programme is consulting practitioners nationally and conducting case studies across six local authorities to review how Channel is being delivered. This is a significant piece of work to improve our understanding of Channel's impact on counter-terrorism outcomes and radicalisation risk. The evaluation will report at the end of 2026.
Earlier this year, Prevent launched new guidance to ensure that repeat referrals to Prevent receive the multi-agency consideration they require. In January 2025, the Channel multi-agency programme was extended to enable interventions in cases where people are under police investigation. This means specialist support can be provided to individuals - and particularly young people - who are already on a pathway to terrorism offending, to reduce their risk of harm.
An end-to-end review of Prevent thresholds has also been concluded, and its recommendations will strengthen our approach to the assessment and management of Prevent referrals, including where young people are identified as being at risk. Pilots are now running across the country, to ensure that where young people do not meet Prevent thresholds, they receive the support they need from wider services.
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