Yorkshire and North East saw country's highest rate of extreme right-wing terrorism Prevent referrals last year

Figures released through the Government's counter-terrorism strategy Prevent, which takes referrals from the community rising from concerns a person has been radicalised by extremists, show there were 33.4 referrals per million population relating to the extreme right in the year ending March 2020.

This was the highest rate of any region in England and Wales fro right-wing extremism, including radicalisation from banned neo-Nazi groups such as National Action and Combat 18.

Overall in the North East region, which includes Yorkshire & the Humber, there were 938 referrals to Prevent last financial year – a rate of 114.8 per million people.

Of these, 169 were deemed credible enough to discuss at a panel, resulting in 85 being taken on by Channel, meaning authorities intervene.

It comes as the national trend showed the first upturn in Islamist referrals since 2016 - increasing by six per cent - while referrals relating to extreme right-wing ideologies dropped by 0.1 per cent.

Nationally, there were 1,487 referrals for concerns over Islamist extremism and 1,387 for right-wing extremism.

The number of national referrals over "mixed" or "unclear" ideologies has continued to rise, meanwhile, and a Yorkshire Post investigation in September revealed the increasingly-fractured nature of ideologies and methods of radicalisation.In England and Wales, some 3,203 people were flagged over a “mixed, unstable or unclear ideology”, while 210 were referred over other concerns like international and left-wing radicalisation.

Counter-terror officials this year have expressed concerns that young people - who are the most at-risk category to radicalisation - have been more vulnerable during the lockdown due to spending even more time online and away from friends and classrooms where concerns may be picked up.

Detective Superintendent Matthew Davidson, of the North East Count-terrorism Unit, said at the time: “Terrorism takes many forms.

"Traditionally, people tend to think of things like 9/11 and that people come together over time to plan these attacks. In the last few years their [terrorists’] approach has broadened because they want to increase their numbers.”

Last year's figures show most Prevent referrals came from the police and education bodies, and more than half of all those flagged up to authorities - 3,423 or 54 per cent - were aged 20 or under.

With an annual budget of around £40 million, the Prevent scheme aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

It was launched after public bodies were placed under a statutory duty in 2015 to stop people being drawn into terrorism.

Anyone concerned that someone they know might be at risk can refer them.

When authorities decide there is a risk that the person referred to Prevent could be drawn into terrorism, they are then assessed as part of the Channel scheme and potentially taken on as a case. Engagement with the scheme is voluntary and it is not a criminal sanction.

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