Prevent referrals have climbed to a record high in England and Wales, with the government’s anti-terror scheme receiving 10,293 referrals in the year to September 2025. The Home Office said the surge may be tied in part to the Southport attacks and the heightened public attention that followed them.
The figures cover 9,957 people and mark a 39% rise from the previous 12 months, the highest total since records began in 2015. Of the referrals where age was known, 393 involved children under 10. The largest share, 36%, involved those aged 11 to 15, followed by 16 to 17-year-olds at 13%.
Officials said awareness of Prevent increased after the July 2024 Southport attacks, when a teenager killed three girls at a dance class. Axel Rudakubana was 17 at the time of the attack, in which he stabbed 11 children and two adults. The victims included nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and six-year-old Bebe King, who died at a Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop.
Rudakubana had been referred to Prevent three times between 2019 and 2021 because of concerns about his interest in terrorist attacks and school shootings. Authorities later said there was no evidence of a fixed ideology or motivation. A government review found his case had been closed prematurely and said counter-terrorism officers had enough information to move the case on to Channel, the next stage of monitoring for people thought to be at risk of radicalisation.
The Home Office said the Southport attacks may also have helped drive a 117% increase in referrals discussed at a Channel panel, from 997 to 2,159. It also pointed to a review led by Lord David Anderson KC, which found referrals rose between January and March 2025 during Rudakubana’s trial. The department said operational and policy changes, along with training introduced over the same period, may also have influenced the increase.
