What is Prevent?
Prevent is a national initiative aimed at reducing the threat to the UK from terrorism. It seeks to stop people becoming terrorists or support terrorism.
The delivery of Prevent is grounded in early intervention and safeguarding.
Prevent addresses all forms of terrorism. The allocation of resources is proportionate to the threats we face.
Current threats
The most significant of these threats is currently from terrorist organisations associated with:
- Al Qa’ida
- Daesh
- terrorists associated with extreme right-wing ideologies
- lone actors inspired by such organisations
This list is not exhaustive. The risk and threat to the UK is subject to constant review and updated accordingly.
Prevent has three objectives:
- Tackle the causes of radicalisation and respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism.
- Safeguard and support those most at risk of radicalisation. This is done through early intervention, by identifying them and offering support.
- Enable those who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate.
There is an ongoing commitment to protecting freedom of speech. However, preventing terrorism means challenging extremist, and non-violent, ideas that are also part of a terrorist ideology. This includes instances of unclear, mixed or unstable ideology. Prevent also facilitates stopping people moving from extremist to terrorist-related activity.
The UK government's Counter-Extremism Strategy defines extremism as:
‘The vocal or active opposition to our fundamental values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and respect and tolerance for different faiths and beliefs. We also regard calls for the death of members of our armed forces as extremist.’
What is Channel?
Channel forms a key part of Prevent. It works to identify and support individuals at risk of radicalisation.
There is no fixed profile of a terrorist. Therefore there is no defined standard to spot someone who is being drawn into terrorism. But when someone begins to adopt extremist views early support should be provided.
Unlike mainstream safeguarding there is no threshold to make a Prevent referral. There may be cases that require a safeguarding response in conjunction with Prevent.