Dozens of children suspected of terrorism as arrests soar by over 30% in a year
Dozens of children were arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences last year, chilling new figures reveal.
Home Office data shows 42 youngsters aged 17 or younger were among 219 terror suspects arrested in 2023. The total is up 31% from last year, the first year-on-year rise since 2017 and the highest number since 2019.
Ministers have been accused of being “too weak and too slow” to tackle online radicalisation. Data released by the Government shows 61 people were charged with terror offences, while 98 were released under investigation last year.
A further 12 faced alternative action, such as receiving a caution or recalled to prison, and 46 were released without charge. The UK’s current terrorism threat level is substantial, meaning an attack is “highly likely”. Last month the Government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation said the terror threat “is now greater” following the October 7 attack on Israel.
According to the Home Office nearly half of those arrested were “of white appearance”, accounting for 46%. Those of “Asian ethnic appearance”, the figures show, account for 34%.
Nearly two thirds of those arrested considered themselves to be British or British dual nationality, the data reveals. Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “These alarming figures show that more children than ever are being arrested for terror offences, and they come after years of warnings about the growing risk of online radicalisation.
The number of arrests rose for the first time since 2017
“The Independent Reviewer of Terrorism has made clear that this reflects a deeper problem about isolated individuals and ‘malign online spaces’, yet over many years the government’s response to new online threats has been too weak and too slow.
“We need urgent action to prevent our young people from being radicalised by poisonous ideologies that put our communities and country at risk.”
The latest figures showed there were 244 prisoners behind bars for terrorism offences last year, with 65% were classed as holding Islamist-extremist views. A further 26% held extreme right-wing ideologies – while 9% were deemed to have other motivations.
A total of 56 terrorist prisoners were freed from jail in the year to September, according to the latest available data. It somes amid growing concern about the threat level the UK faces.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “Our police and intelligence agencies continue their tireless work to keep us all safe from the evolving threat of terrorism. We are committed to giving them all the necessary tools to do this. That is why we have bolstered powers for those protecting us and introduced tougher sentences for the most dangerous terrorists.”
Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Matt Jukes said in January: “It’s hard to remember a more unstable, dangerous and uncertain world. I have not seen the conditions collide in the way we have in the last months during my tenure,” he said.
“The speed and the scale of the impact of global events are extraordinary, even in the context of our experience. If events happen around the world, they will invariably pull a thread in the UK, and particularly in its very diverse city communities, but what we have seen clearly is fear, anxiety, uncertainty, a whole range of very significant reactions amongst UK communities.”