The Home Office will encourage the parents of radicalised teenagers to report them to the government’s counterextremism programme by using an online form on the gov.uk website.
Only 166 of the 6,406 referrals to the Prevent programme in the year to March 2022 were made by friends or relatives, a rate of 2.6 per cent.
William Shawcross, the author of an independent review of the counterextremism programme, said counterterrorism and civil society groups working with Prevent had “stressed to me the importance of friends and family coming forward about individuals for whom they have a concern”.
He added: “Friends and family are particularly important because of their perceived instinctive ability to spot behavioural change in people close to them.”
