London Mayor Pressed to Review Police Referrals of Infants to Prevent

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, is facing pressure to examine the Metropolitan Police’s role in referring babies and toddlers to the Home Office’s Prevent scheme. According to data uncovered by Hyphen, children aged three and under in London were referred to this counter-terrorism program 77 times between 2016 and 2025, a figure higher than any other region in Britain. The Mayor is expected to address these findings during a question session at City Hall, where he oversees the Met, the largest police force in the country.

The data, obtained through multiple freedom of information requests, reveals that police in England and Wales were responsible for more than half of all such referrals for young children over the nine-year period. Specifically, law enforcement agencies made 125 of the 216 total referrals for children under four. This contrasts sharply with the education sector, including nursery staff, which accounted for 43 referrals, indicating that police were three times as likely to flag an infant or toddler for the scheme.

Regional Disparities in Referral Patterns

The distribution of these referrals shows significant geographic variation. While London accounted for the highest number of cases, other hotspots included the West Midlands, the East of England, and the East Midlands. In contrast, no children in that age bracket living in Scotland were referred to Prevent during the same period. This unevenness suggests that different regions may be applying vastly different thresholds and approaches to the scheme, raising questions about consistency in national security practices.

The disparity is particularly pronounced when examining referrals made on the basis of so-called Islamist concerns. Of the 151 babies and toddlers reported for these specific reasons, approximately 64 percent were flagged by the policing sector. London alone accounted for about 42 percent of all such national referrals for this age group, a proportion that remains significant even when adjusting for the city's population size and demographic composition.

Critics Cite Stigmatization and Resource Waste

Political and industry figures have expressed concern over the implications of these figures. Benali Hamdache, a Green Party member of the London Assembly, described the data as shocking, arguing that flagging infants as potential extremists is a misallocation of police resources. He highlighted the long-term damage that a wrongful referral can cause to a child’s life, potentially affecting their future access to education, employment, and other opportunities.

A senior police source, speaking anonymously, echoed these concerns, stating that the high volume of police-initiated referrals for babies is deeply worrying. The source emphasized the need for urgent scrutiny of how counter-terrorism tools are applied to such young age groups. They noted that the significant regional variations point to inconsistent safeguarding processes and raised serious questions about the criteria used to initiate these referrals.

Proportionality Within Overall Prevent Data

Contextualizing the figures, government data from the most recent year shows that police were responsible for 31 percent of all Prevent referrals across all age groups. This is lower than the 34 percent contributed by the education sector. However, the concentration of police activity on infants and toddlers suggests a disproportionate focus on the youngest demographic within the broader scheme. This specific pattern distinguishes the treatment of young children from the general population referred to the program.

The Home Office has declined to disclose exactly how many of the London referrals were made by the Metropolitan Police, citing operational sensitivities. Nevertheless, the aggregate data from other forces provides a clear picture of the trend. As the Mayor prepares to respond to queries on Thursday, the focus will likely remain on whether current safeguards are adequate to prevent the stigmatization of very young children and to ensure that police resources are deployed effectively.