OfS Prevent monitoring data for 2023/2024
The Office for Students has recently published its Prevent monitoring data for 2023/2024. The broad themes are:
The number of referrals to Channel is small and holding steady.
In 2023-24 there were 65 ‘formal external Prevent referrals’. This is the same number as 2022-23, showing a break in the year-on-year increase from 55 referrals in 21/22, 47 in 2020-21, 37 in 2019-20, 24 in 2018-19, and 15 in 2017-18.
Numbers remain low given the total number of institutions (335 in 2023-24) and the students covered by the returns.
The number of events and speakers approved by institutions remains high, with even lower rates of refusal for any reason, and very low rates of refusal for Prevent related reasons.
In 2023-24, as in 2022-23 the number of events or speaker requests rejected for Prevent related reasons was less than or equal to 2, as was the case in 21/22, and in 2020-21 the number was zero.
Overall, the number of events or speaker requests rejected in 2023-24 has fallen to 220, with 42,440 approved via an external speakers process, a decrease from 340 rejections in 22/23 with 39,475 approved, , and 260 rejections in 21/22 with 31,545 approved. The percentage rejected has fallen to 0.5% of all events.
For the second year, institutions have been providing data on the underpinning ideology behind the statistics.
For cases escalated to the Prevent lead, or for informal external advice, or for a formal Prevent referral, ‘Islamist radicalisation’ figures are broadly on a par with ‘mixed, unclear, or unstable ideology’, while both of those are at least double the number referred for ‘extreme right-wing radicalisation’.
Numbers of staff identified as key in relation to the Prevent duty (80,525), and those receiving induction training (23,625) and refresher training (26,895) remain high, though the first two figures have fallen since 2022/23.
If in the following academic years institutions combine the required staff training in relation to freedom of speech with their training on Prevent, we can expect these numbers to rise sharply.
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