Prevent Referral Data

Police Scotland is committed to working in partnership to deliver the aims of the Prevent Strategy.

This area of service delivery is very much a joint enterprise, with other public sector bodies and all communities all having a part to play.

Prevent is a strand of the UK Government’s Counter-Terrorist Strategy known as ‘CONTEST’ and the purpose of Prevent is to ‘stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism’. In Scotland, the Prevent strategy aims to tackle all forms of violent extremism and terrorism, including international, Northern-Ireland related and the extreme right wing.

Prevent is delivered in Scotland through a multi-agency approach which focuses on the early identification of individuals who are vulnerable to being drawn into violent extremism.

At the heart of the strategy is a partnership response designed to put in place appropriate safeguarding and supportive measures. Prevent is not a police led agenda, it is founded on a shared responsibility across partners and communities to ensure that vulnerable people are appropriately supported.

The success of the Prevent Strategy rests on organisations and communities being able to make referrals about people they are concerned may be drawn into terrorism. Police Scotland works to take initial receipt of these referrals and thereafter coordinates an appropriate multi-agency response to safeguard the individual.

In our efforts to be as transparent as possible about Prevent, Police Scotland has, along with partners, taken the decision to publish the data regarding Prevent referrals and these annual documents can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.

A short Q&A briefing on Prevent can also be found here (Prevent Q&A), which provides more information regarding the referral data.

If you would like further information on the Prevent Strategy, please contact 101.