Nearly one in five people referred to Britain’s controversial Prevent counter-extremism programme had autism recorded as a condition, according to new Home Office figures, raising fresh concerns over the scheme’s impact on neurodivergent people.
Analysis of the figures show that 1,833 of the 9,957 people referred to Prevent between October 2024 and September 2025 had autism recorded, with 1,199 classified as confirmed cases and a further 634 recorded as suspected.
“We’ve been aware for a while that autistic people are overrepresented within Prevent, but the fact that it has increased so much over the last year is particularly concerning,” Smith told Middle East Eye.
"Prevent has, since its inception, been plagued by accusations of bias and discrimination.
“It initially targeted Muslim communities and, although the representation of Muslims within Prevent has changed over time, we still see the disproportionate representation of Asian and Black people. We’re now seeing that with autistic people as well.”
The figures also showed:
- a 20 percent rise in referrals for individuals related to far-right extremism.
- Asian people continue to be overrepresented in the Prevent programme, making up 18 percent of referrals where ethnicity was recorded - double their proportion of the wider population in England and Wales.
- Black people are also overrepresented in the Prevent programme - (eight percent of referrals when ethnicity was noted, compared to four percent of the population
- Despite government warnings that “Islamist extremism” remains the greatest threat facing the UK, referrals categorised under that label have declined to eight percent of all Prevent cases.