Recommendation SP35: Balancing vulnerability with professional curiosity
From The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1, published 13 April 2026.
Recommendation
Counter Terrorism Policing Headquarters should review and where necessary strengthen the training that Counter Terrorism officers involved in Prevent already receive to ensure that they understand the importance of balancing concern for an individual’s vulnerability with appropriate professional curiosity and awareness of disguised compliance. The training should:
1. Address cases involving children or individuals with mental health conditions or neurodivergence, where concern for vulnerability may obscure the potential for dangerousness;
2. Equip officers to test and verify accounts, including probing explanations when necessary and comparing accounts with other available evidence, including that provided by the referrer. Counter Terrorism Policing North West should review its own processes in this regard.
In brief (written by this site)
In July 2026, HM Government stated that the Home Office is supporting Counter Terrorism Policing to make changes regarding recommendation 35 (2), including developing new technical tools to assist officers with assessing the online activity and risk of individuals referred to Prevent (Home Office response, Jul 2026). It noted that an evaluation of the Prevent Assessment Framework is ongoing to consider further improvements (Home Office response, Jul 2026). The record holds no update since the government's response of July 2026 (Home Office response, Jul 2026).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
The Home Office is supporting CTP to make changes in relation to recommendations 32, 33 and 35 (2). These changes will improve case officers' ability to understand and assess the online activity of individuals referred to Prevent, including by developing new technical tools to assist with accessing someone's online activity and so CTP can fully understand the risk that they might pose. The Home Office updated the Prevent National Referral Form in 2024 to include a request to provide an individual's social media handle, to support this work. The Home Office also rolled out the new Prevent Assessment Framework (PAF) in January 2025. This is the tool for CTP and Channel panels to assess and case manage people referred to Prevent. Consideration and recording of online activity features throughout the framework so that online behaviours form a key element of assessments and action planning. Evaluation of the PAF is ongoing and any improvements around the online aspects of the tool and accompanying guidance will be considered as part of that process.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
The government's response to Phase 1 (CP 1623, 2 July 2026) agreed with all 67 recommendations in one sentence, and names only 39 of them individually. Where a recommendation is not named, the response shown is the passage the response gives for the group it belongs to (the recommendations for organisations outside central government, or the recommendations to policing bodies), which is not a response to that recommendation alone; the response does not list the members of any group. The 10 recommendations for Phase 2 of the Inquiry to consider show no response: the response introduces them (paragraph 20) but answers none of them. The government accepts the recommendations that are for central government to deliver. Where a recommendation is for an organisation outside central government, the government's agreement is not that organisation's acceptance.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Counter Terrorism Policing has been found in the sources searched (last checked 2 July 2026). This is separate from the response above.
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Home Office
Response