The Prevent scheme needs to “rapidly” adapt to the online world “where so much radicalisation takes place”, an independent review has found.
The anti-extremism programme has been under increased scrutiny after two recent terror incidents involving Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana and Sir David Amess’s killer Ali Harbi Ali damaged its reputation.
Lord Anderson KC was appointed as the new independent commissioner for Prevent in January and the long-awaited report into the scheme was published on Wednesday, outlining 10 recommendations to improve the programme.
His recommendations can be summarised into five major themes, including adapting to the online world and applying Prevent to people who have no fixed ideology but “a fascination with extreme violence or mass casualty attacks”.
Lord Anderson recommended that “all feasible and right-compliant avenues should be explored as a matter of priority to enable evidence of online activity to be more effectively used”.
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The review was launched following the brutal killings by Rudakubana and Ali.
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Rudakubana, then 17, killed Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in the attack at the Hart Space in Southport, Merseyside, on 29 July last year.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder in January and was sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in jail, with the judge saying it’s “highly likely” he will never be released.
It was revealed that Rudakubana, now 18, was referred to the government anti-extremism scheme – known as Prevent – three times before the murders due to a fixation with violence.
These three referrals happened in the 17 months between December 2019 and April 2021, when Rudakubana was 13 and 14 years old.
He was referred for the first time in December 2019 around comments about a mass shooting, then again in February 2021 after another pupil highlighted social media posts about Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and for a third time in April of the same year when a teacher noticed he had two internet tabs open displaying searches about the London Bridge terror attacks during a lesson.
The aim of Prevent is to “stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism”.
The government-led, multi-agency scheme also helps to rehabilitate and disengage those who are already involved in terrorism, and safeguard communities from threats.
Referrals to Prevent lead to a “gateway assessment”, made by specialist police officers to determine whether there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect the person is “susceptible to becoming a terrorist or supporting terrorism”.
The individual will then receive tailored support to reduce their susceptibility to being radicalised into terrorism, if appropriate.
The Prevent programme has three main aims:
• To tackle the ideological causes of terrorism;
• Intervene early to support people susceptible to radicalisation;
• Enable people who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate.
Each time his case was assessed, he was not deemed a terrorism risk, and he has never been subject to a counterterrorism police investigation or declared a subject of interest to MI5.
Islamic State (ISIS) supporter Ali was referred to Prevent years before he stabbed Conservative MP Sir David Amess to death during a constituency surgery at a church hall in Leigh-on-Sea in October 2021.
His case had been closed five years before, after just one meeting for coffee at a McDonald’s to deal with his interpretation of “haram” (forbidden under Islamic law), as well as texts and calls with an “intervention provider”.
Despite Prevent policy and guidance at the time being “mostly followed”, his case was “exited too quickly”, security minister Dan Jarvis told the House of Commons in January.
Ali, who was given a whole-life sentence, had become radicalised by ISIS propaganda and had been referred to Prevent in 2014 by his school after teachers said his demeanour, appearance and behaviour changed from a previously “engaging student with a bright future” with aspirations to be a doctor to failing his A-levels and wanting to move to a “more Islamic state because he could no longer live among unbelievers”.
Prevent took his case on and escalated him to Channel, part of the programme that aims to prevent involvement in extremism.
Just five months later, he was dismissed from Prevent after his terrorism risk was assessed as low. A review by police 12 months after he was released from Prevent “also found no terrorism concerns” and the case was closed.
