Prevent Strategy

The Prevent strategy forms one of four strands of the UK Government's Counter-Terrorism strategy, known as CONTEST. The UK faces a continuing threat from both international and domestic terrorism. The Prevent strategy aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

Violent extremism can emerge from any community and can be inspired from a wide range of factors.

Whilst Violent Islamist ideology continues to pose a threat to the UK, the Prevent Strategy also addresses extremism driven by other ideologies. This includes extreme right wing, as well as extremism linked to causes such as climate activism, animal rights, and tensions arising from internation al conflicts. The Prevent strategy does not target or stigmatise any specific group or community. It does not criminalise people for holding strong or controversial views. Instead, it focuses on preventing the use or encouragement of violence as a method of promoting these views.

Prevent is driven by a multitude of groups with influence at the local level. A number of agencies contribute to the strategy, from the Police and other emergency services, Local Government and Councils, local businesses and voluntary groups, to members of the public. Each of these groups has an instrumental role to play in monitoring the resilience of our local communities to the threat posed by extremism. Members of the public can play an instrumental role in preventing extremist groups from operating within their communities.

No one is better placed than members of the public to notice potential extremist activity taking place within their own community. The following list provides some possible examples. This list is not exhaustive and is intended for illustrative purposes only:

• distributing leaflets or displaying posters that carry a violent extremist message
• accessing violent extremist forums or websites in internet cafés
• extremist groups meeting at community centres
• viewing terrorist or violent extremist promotional videos
• incidents such as these can be reported to Surrey Police Special Branch via 101.  Extremist activity can also be reported through the Anti-Terrorist Hotline. The line is confidential, anonymous and intended for the reporting of non-life-threatening activity

To report potentially immediate threats, such as a suspicious vehicle or package, always call 999.

The public can now report online content (suspicious internet sites, chat rooms or other web-based forums) they suspect may be of a violent extremist or terrorist nature.

Report potential terrorism