Record number of children arrested in UK over 'terrorist-related activities'

Overall, 219 people were detained in 2023, up a third on previous year and highest figure since 2019

The UK has updated its extremism definition to include conduct that falls short of criminality but is still 'unacceptable'. Getty Images

More than 40 children were arrested in connection with alleged terrorism offences in the UK last year – the highest number since records began, official figures show.

The Home Office said police made 219 arrests for terrorism-related activities in the 12 months to December 2023, a jump of almost a third on the previous year.

This total figure compared to 167 people detained in 2022. The 2023 total was the highest number since 2019, when 282 suspects were arrested. In 2017, 467 arrests made.

Of the 219 people arrested in 2023, 42 were children under the age of 17 – compared to 32 in the previous year. The proportion of arrests of children remained the same at 19 per cent.

But 2023 represented the highest number of arrests in this age group since records began more than 20 years ago. Just three children were arrested in 2002.

Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the figures on child arrests were “alarming” and called for “urgent action” to stop young people being drawn into “poisonous ideologies”.

The Home Office figures follow warnings about the growing risk of online radicalisation.

The government said it was “committed” to giving police and intelligence services “all the necessary tools” to fight the “evolving threat of terrorism”.

“That is why we have bolstered powers for those protecting us and introduced tougher sentences for the most dangerous terrorists,” said the government.

This comes days after the UK unveiled an updated definition of extremism designed to include conduct that falls short of criminality but is still deemed “unacceptable”.

That follows Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling on the country to draw a line against the “poison” of extremism.

Any groups meeting the new description will have government funding and support cut.

The government now considers extremism to be “the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance” that aims to “negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others” or “undermine, overturn or replace the UK's system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights”.

It also includes those who “intentionally create a permissive environment for others to achieve” either of those aims.

In total, 61 of the 2023 arrests – 28 per cent – resulted in charges being brought, with 57 suspects facing prosecution over terrorism-related offences.

Some 46 people – 21 per cent of the total – were released without charge, while 98 were bailed while investigations continued.

A further 12 individuals faced “alternative action”, which could include being handed a caution or being recalled to prison.

At the time the data was provided, decisions had not yet been made about two other suspects.

As with previous years, the majority of people arrested – 71 per cent – were British nationals, or people with British dual nationality.

The figures also showed there were 244 prisoners behind bars in the UK for terrorism offences last year.

Of these, 65 per cent were classed as holding Islamist-extremist views, while 26 per cent held extreme right-wing ideologies. The remaining 9 per cent were deemed to have other motivations.

A total of 56 people who had been jailed for terrorist offences were freed from jail in the year to September 2023, according to the latest available data.