Rise of 60% in referrals to anti-extremism programme

SPIKE MAKES REGION NEXT ONLY TO CAPITAL IN CASES

THE North East has seen a huge spike in the number of people being referred to the Government’s anti-extremism programme.

Following a 60% increase, the region is now second only to London in the number of people identified as possible terror threats.

The figures include a rise in potential right-wing extremists flagged up to the Prevent counter-terrorism programme.

According to the Home Office data, the North East has the highest number of people suspected of being at risk of becoming involved in right-wing terrorism than any other region in England and Wales.

Between April 2017 and March 2018, counter-terrorism experts were made aware of 1,223 individuals in the North East.

That’s up from 773 in the previous year, an increase of 58%.

The news comes the same week the West End of Newcastle was rocked by a dramatic raid on the house of a terror suspect.

Counter-terrorism officers and armed police swooped on a home in Philip Place, Arthur’s Hill, on December 11.

A 33-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of terror offences.

The data shows the largest group in the 1,223 referrals in the North East were 439 who were identified as potential Islamist extremists.

A further 249 were referred over concerns they were involved with rightwing extremism, the largest number of any region.

The remainder were identified as potentially being associated with “mixed, unstable or unclear ideologies” or “other ideologies”.

The Prevent strategy intervenes with individuals to “safeguard” them “from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism”.

Referrals are most commonly made by police forces and schools but anyone is able to flag up someone they suspect is being drawn towards terrorism or becoming involved with extremist ideology.

Those most at risk can then be supported through the Channel programme. Of the 394 cases Channel experts worked on last year across the country, almost half were related to right wing extremism.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: “Just in the same way we want to safeguard people from child sexual exploitation, from county lines drugs gangs, you would also expect the Government to work hard to turn people away from extremism.”