Home Office to review autism cases in anti-extremism unit

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The Home Office has ordered a review into the treatment of people with autism who are referred to the government’s Prevent deradicalisation programme, in recognition that a high number of minors with neurodiversity diagnoses are appearing in counter-terrorism casework.

The announcement follows a Financial Times investigation in October that highlighted the scale of the trend, with specialist psychiatrists estimating that 13 per cent of police counter-terrorism work involves people with autism, a condition that affects only 1 per cent of the population.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper announced new measures this week to strengthen the UK’s Prevent programme, which seeks to identify people at risk of extremism and divert them away from violence. She said the programme had to adapt to the increasing number of young people being drawn towards violent ideologies online.

The Home Office will undertake a strategic review to improve the support given to those referred to Prevent “who are neurodivergent or suffer from mental ill-health”, she said.

Once people with a suspected diagnosis are included, one quarter of those receiving deradicalisation support from Prevent’s most serious “Channel” stream are autistic, according to a 2021 internal Home Office analysis seen by the FT and reported in the investigation.

The Home Office has never confirmed the existence of this research and — until now — has not publicly acknowledged a link between autism and Prevent referrals. The Homeland Security Analysis and Insight team, which compiled the 2021 study, are to provide input to the new review.

Experts who contributed to the FT investigation say that while autistic people are less likely to break the law than their neurotypical peers, they may be more vulnerable to grooming and radicalisation. The National Autistic Society has warned that some autistic children are being referred to Prevent due to a lack of adequate healthcare provision to support their condition.

However, police and intelligence agencies have repeatedly drawn attention to the rise in children being involved in terrorist activity. Currently, 13 per cent of those under investigation by MI5 counter-terrorism teams are under 18 — a threefold increase in the last three years. The number of under-18s arrested on terror offences has increased from three in the year to September 2010, to 32 in the year ending September 2024. Children aged 11 to 15 now make up 40 per cent of all Prevent referrals.

This trend is causing concern beyond the UK. A paper published earlier this month by the Five Eyes security allies — Britain, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — said spy chiefs were “increasingly concerned” about the radicalisation of minors who go on to plan or undertake terrorist activities.

The paper called for better co-operation between law enforcement and academia to understand “vulnerability factors” around the radicalisation of young people, including “neurodiversity and mental health”.

Jonathan Hall, the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, was one of the first to call out the prevalence of autism among Prevent referrals.

“It is hardly a surprise that a social disruptor as big as the internet should expose new vulnerabilities, such as the presence of lonely neurodivergent children in counter-terrorism casework,” he told the FT.

“A policy review is to be welcomed, but it must be practical, and I suggest that if it is to be effective it must start with the experiences of these children and young people.”