End Prevent-related Islamophobia in the UK

The Home Office and the police are misleading the friends and family of people referred to Prevent, all while setting them up for surveillance, Rights & Security International (RSI) said in February 2026.

Two documents that RSI uncovered through the freedom-of-information process, and that were recently covered in Private Eye magazine, paint a disturbing picture.

The first document, a ‘Friends & Family Factsheet’ given to people whose friend or family member has been referred to Prevent, was prepared by the Home Office and Counter-Terrorism Policing (CTP). It misleads friends and family in several ways, including by:

- Claiming that the Prevent and Channel processes are ‘voluntary’ and ‘consensual’, whereas RSI’s previous research suggests that consent is not the norm, while police can move cases into a secretive police-led process when they do not want to seek consent.

- Claiming that certain opinions or beliefs are ‘against the law’. Under human rights law, everyone in the UK has an absolute right to freedom of thought and opinion, meaning that it is never unlawful to believe something. Actions may be illegal, but thoughts, opinions or beliefs cannot be.

- Linking holding ‘strong opinions’ with ‘extremism’ worthy of a Prevent referral. Prevent is ostensibly aimed at stopping people from committing acts of violence, and there is no evidenced link between the mere holding of ‘strong opinions’ and violence.

The second document, the CTP ‘Multiple Referrals Policy’, outlines how the police treat new Prevent referrals involving a person who has already been referred to the programme, regardless of the initial referral’s outcome. This policy was updated in March 2025, as part of the government’s response to the murders of three girls in Southport. Notably, the document shows the impact a referral can have on a person’s family and social networks by teeing those other people up for surveillance, saying:

“…we [CTP] run adequate checks against a referral Subject’s close family and co-habitants.”

As well as our concerns about police surveillance of family members, friends and housemates, we are concerned that the policy equates multiple referrals with risk. Each year, the police determine that most referrals are not suitable for the Prevent process, and either close the case or signpost it to public services. This policy document makes no distinction between prior referrals resulting in a Channel case (that is, more sustained review by the authorities) or other intervention, and referrals that required no further action. It therefore risks dragging more people in to counter-terrorism intervention – and making it harder for them to get out – simply because they have previously been referred to Prevent. Because no evidence is required for a Prevent referral, it is possible that someone will be referred multiple times simply due to Islamophobia, racism or other bias on the part of the person making the referrals.

Links:

• NPCC Response Letter
• Multiple Referrals Policy
• Fact Sheet for family and friends

Prevent is a counter-terrorism strategy that forces teachers, NHS workers and others to report suspected extremism under vague criteria, and it mainly impacts children and young people.

Some of the main achievements of our work during 2025 include: 

• The investigative research carried out using freedom of information (FOI) requests which culminated in the publication of the report ‘Caught in the Web: Prevent databases and the policing of children’ in January 2025. 

• Additional FOI disclosures (some of which have been given subsequent press attention) about Prevent and its equality impacts. Although the picture it shows is incomplete, it's a step towards us reaching our objectives.

• The government's most recent statistical release regarding individuals referred to Prevent includes some of the equality monitoring data that we requested.

• We published a literature review to examine what academic research tells us about the relationship between autism and violence – and the findings are clear. There is no evidence of a direct causal link between autism and violence.  The review also shows how intersecting inequalities shape experiences of discrimination: autistic people of colour, and those from minoritised religious and ethnic groups, face higher risks of misdiagnosis, over-policing and criminalisation. 

Our ultimate goal is to end Prevent, and we hope that by compelling better equality monitoring, we will unearth the racial and other discrimination that we strongly suspect plague the programme. This work will continue in 2026. 

Links:

• Review: The (lack of) relationship between autism and violence