More suspected far-right extremists were targeted by the anti-terrorism program last year than suspected Islamist extremism, annual figures show.
In total, 8,778 referrals were made due to suspicion of extremist radicalism in the year of March 2025, 27% more than last year in a year that started 10 years ago.
Of the 8,769 referrals where the type of anxiety was determined, 21%, or 1,798 cases, were due to “severe encounter anxiety”; 10%, or 870, are referrals connected to Islamist ideology; and 56%, or 4,917, were judged to have no identified ideology.
Five percent (469) of the referrals were due to concerns about “attractiveness to extreme violence or mass casualty attacks (where there is no other ideology)”. This category recorded a significant increase in referrals in the most recent quarter, January to March 2025, an increase of 240% compared to the previous quarter.
The figures, taken from the government’s program to divert people in England and Wales from Terrorism, were published on Thursday on referrals since the murders in Southport in July in July 2024.
Only a third of referrals in 2024-25 will have at least one mental health or neurodiversity condition recorded, Home Office figures show.
Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) was the most common condition recorded, at 14% of referrals.
In October, an inquiry into the attack in Southport, where three children were killed, heard there had since been a sharp increase in referrals to prevent where there were “concerns about abusive treatment”.
Axel Rudakubana, who carried out the attack, was targeted to avoid the three but the inquiry heard that he did not meet further intervention because there was no evidence that he had a specific ideology.
After the initial screening and evaluation, referrals targeted at the risk of radicalization can be forwarded to a multi-agency “channel panel”.
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Led by local authorities, these panels determine how vulnerable a person is to radicalization and whether a tailored support package is necessary and proportionate to the risk response.
Of the referrals made to avoid in the year of March 2025, 1,727 people were discussed in a channel panel, and 1,472 were adopted as a channel case.
Individuals aged between 11 and 15 account for 39% of adopted cases.