Pensioner ‘Terror Threat’ Up 90% in the UK, Government Report Claims

The number of over-60-year-olds suspected of being a ‘terror threat’ has increased by 90 percent over three years, new government data claims. The figures seem to reflect the attempts to appease those trying to ‘inflate the threat’ of the far-right.

The 2019/20 figures show that 97 people over 60 were flagged as a concern to Prevent, which is a governmental strategy to identify potentially dangerous extremists. This is double the figure for 2017/18 with 53 cases, and three times the number for 2016/17. Many security experts believe the majority of these ‘extremist pensioners’ would be considered far-right terror suspects.

These figures come after the Prevent strategy was branded as ‘toxic’ in 2015 for predominantly targeting those from a Muslim background. The comments came two years prior to the 2017 suicide bombing of the Manchester Arena by Islamic extremists, killing 23 people.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a terror expert who has chaired the government’s Cobra Intelligence group, spoke to MailOnline about the recent figures. He states:

‘I know that the authorities are trying to emphasise far-right extremism rather than Islamic extremism… I can tell you that the threat between the two is not comparable. Of course there is a marginal threat from the left and right, but not comparable.’

'In the interests of trying to appear even-handed and appease people that criticised the Prevent programme for focusing on Islamic extremists, I know they are looking at far-right extremism more to counter those accusations… The authorities have tried to inflate that threat to try and appease critics of those policies.'

Colonel Kemp goes on to explain that the increase in referrals may not be entirely political:

'Younger people are certainly involved in attacks and plots generally, but I think there is the increased understanding that older people imams, elders or community leaders may be extremely important when it comes to radicalising them...The numbers are encouraging, because despite people in Islamic communities being heavily critical of Prevent, this seems to show that more people within those communities are referring older people. I think the older referrals must be coming from inside the community itself.'

Out of the 97 over-sixty referrals, 18 were discussed and five went on to become legitimate cases. 

What is Prevent?

Prevent was set up in 2003 by the then-ruling Labour Party as a counter-terrorism initiative. The programme uses early intervention, which seeks to protect individuals who are targeted by terrorist influences from becoming radicalised. 

They do so by providing local, multi-agency safeguarding support. The type of support may vary between help with careers, education, advice, dealing with mental or emotional health issues or digital safety training for parents. Anyone can make a referral to Prevent if they are concerned about the radicalisation of someone else.  

After receiving a referral, a case is assessed and if considered appropriate the case can be escalated to something known as the ‘Channel Programme’. The Channel Programme offers different but comparable types of support for individuals that may be vulnerable to influence from terror groups. 

Other key findings 

In the 2019/20 report (ending 31st March 2020) there were a total of 6,287 referrals to Prevent. This is a 10% increase from the record low in the previous year. The police made the highest number of referrals (1,950; 31%), followed by the education sector (1,928; 31%).

Following trends in previous years, the majority of referrals were for males (5,514; 88%) and over half of all referrals were for individuals aged 20 and under (3,423; 54%). 

The number of referrals discussed at a Channel panel (1,424) and adopted as a case (697; 11%) continued to increase when compared to previous years. Out of the 697 cases, the most common were addressing concerns of right-wing radicalisation (302; 43%), followed by Islamic radicalisation (210; 30%).