British MPs have called for more targeted systems to address growing extremism in children and young people in the UK, accusing the Home Office of allowing the Prevent programme to “drift beyond its remit”.
New forms of extremism are emerging, driven by world events like the Israel-Gaza conflict and the rapid spread of online misinformation, a report by the Home Affairs Select Committee found on Wednesday.
Extremism is no longer tied to a specific ideology with young people embracing “hybridised and conflicted ideological belief systems”, the report said. Yet “traditional” forms such as Islamic extremism and the far right still needed close attention.
The report also notes a rise in “anti-Israel extremism, anti-Muslim hostility and eco-extremism”.
Hostile state actors, including Russia and Iran, were exploiting online platforms to sow mistrust and fear, which further radicalises users.
Five people have been arrested since Jewish community ambulances were targeted in an alleged arson attack in north-west London last month.
Two British men, aged 19 and 20, and a 17-year-old dual British-Pakistani national, were arrested at separate addresses in East London on Wednesday. Two other British men, aged 45 and 47, were arrested last week.
The government’s Prevent programme, which assesses young people at risk of radicalisation, is described in the report as “poorly adapted” to identify people being drawn to extremism online. It is also being “saturated” with referrals for children with no fixed ideology, a “high proportion” of whom have neurodiversity or mental health conditions.
“The Home Office is allowing the Prevent system to drift beyond its remit without providing any strategic direction to meet these challenges,” the report said.
The committee, which scrutinises the government’s Home Office, said the entry to Prevent should be expanded with a triage system, so that individuals referred to the programme can then be redirected to a more suitable one.
“Prevent is becoming saturated with non-ideological cases, many of which would be better supported through health, education and community-based interventions rather than a counter-terrorism lens,” the report said.
“A triage system would create a single point of entry, or ‘big front door’ through which a broad range of concerns can be assessed before being offered a single package of support.
“New patterns of extremism, particularly those affecting children and young adults, require a whole of society approach.”
The committee’s inquiry saw oral hearings from Robin Simcox, commissioner at the Commission for Countering Extremism, and interim independent Prevent commissioner Lord Anderson KC, as well as Imran Ahmed, the founder of US-based Centre for Countering Digital Hate, and Adam Hadley, founder of Tech Against Terrorism, among others.
MPs also criticised the new Online Safety Act, which it said “contains gaps that limit government’s ability to address new forms of extremism.” This is particularly the case when harmful content falls below criminal thresholds, and there are concerns that “smaller, high-risk platforms” were not being regulated enough.
“There has been a marked rise in the prevalence of young people being drawn into extremism, often radicalised through a toxic mix of anti-Semitism, misogyny and conspiracy theories combining to form hybridised belief systems, nihilism and violence fascination,” the report added.
