THE Government’s anti-terror programme is not doing enough to tackle ‘non-violent Islamist extremism’, a review has found.

The findings of the long-awaited assessment of the Prevent programme – which aims to stop people turning to terrorism – were published on Wednesday (February 8) and recommended a series of reforms.

Discussions about these reforms were first started by former home secretary Priti Patel after several terror attacks were carried out by extremists who had been referred to Prevent, including the Reading terror attacker.

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Khairi Saadallah murdered three men, James Furlong, 36, David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, in Forbury Gardens on June 20, 2020.

Three other people – Stephen Young, 51, Patrick Edwards, 29, and Nishit Nisudan, 34, – were also injured in the horrific attack before Saadallah threw away the eight-inch knife and ran off, pursued by an off-duty police officer.

He is currently serving a whole-life order in prison.

Other incidents considered when recommending the reforms were homegrown terrorist Ali Harbi Ali who murdered veteran MP Sir David Amess in 2021, Sudesh Amman, responsible for stabbings in Streatham, both in 2020; and the 2017 Parsons Green Tube train attacker Iraqi asylum seeker Ahmed Hassan.

Led by former Charity Commission chairman William Shawcross, the review found Prevent ‘is not doing enough to counter non-violent Islamist extremism’ and ‘has a double standard when dealing with the Extreme Right-Wing and Islamism’.

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In his review, Mr Shawcross said it was ‘clear’ Prevent was ‘out of kilter with the rest of the counter-terrorism system, and the UK terrorism threat picture’ and ‘must return to its overarching objective: to stop individuals from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism’.

He found Prevent was ‘carrying the weight for mental health services’ leading to referrals for vulnerable people who do ‘not necessarily pose a terrorism risk’ which he branded a ‘serious misallocation of resources’ which ‘risks diverting attention from the threat itself’.

Among the findings in the wide-ranging review, the report said: “Challenging extremist ideology should not be limited to proscribed organisations but should also cover domestic extremists operating below the terrorism threshold who can create an environment conducive to terrorism.”

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The Government has accepted all 34 recommendations made in the 188-page report such as a closer relationship between MI5 and Prevent bosses to allow better consideration of the wider terrorism threat by those who run the scheme.

The Home Office said it would ‘overhaul’ Prevent in the fight against radicalisation and that the Home Secretary had ‘committed to delivering wholesale and rapid change’ across the programme.