Prevent scheme ‘treats potential terrorists like they’re victims’

THE Government’s flagship anti-extremist programme treats potential terrorists as ‘victims’ and requires a major shake-up, an official inquiry has found.

Suella Braverman is said to have identified reform of the Prevent programme as a key priority for her first few months as Home Secretary.

The yet-to-be-published review, commissioned by the Home Office three years ago, says the scheme has ‘strayed away’ from its core mission of combating Islamist terror threats and instead prioritises ‘protecting those referred into Prevent from harm’. ‘Prevent too often bestows a status of victimhood on all who come into contact with it, confusing practitioners and officials as to Prevent’s fundamental purpose,’ added an extract from a draft by William Shawcross, the former chairman of the Charity Commission, published by The Sunday Telegraph.

A Home Office spokesman said the report on the programme, set up in 2006, is ‘currently being finalised’.