The Prevent duty
A duty on named kinds of organisation to have due regard to a particular risk in how they carry out their functions — which in practice means an assessment, trained staff, and a route for raising a concern.
What the law requires
Section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 requires specified authorities, in the exercise of their functions, to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. Schedule 6 lists who is specified — including local authorities, schools, registered childcare providers, further and higher education bodies, NHS trusts and foundation trusts, prisons, probation and the police. Statutory guidance is issued under section 29 and authorities must have regard to it. Chapter 2 of the Act provides for Channel, the multi-agency programme to which concerns may be referred, and section 36 requires local authorities to ensure a panel exists. For higher education, section 31 requires particular regard to be had to the duty to secure freedom of speech and to the importance of academic freedom.
Legislation referred to on this page: Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, sections 26, 29, 31 and 36 · Prevent duty guidance issued under section 29. Named so you can read the source. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and whether a duty applies to your organisation is a question for you and your adviser.
Who it applies to
- Only to the authorities specified in Schedule 6 — this is not a general duty on every employer.
- What "due regard" requires varies by sector, and the statutory guidance is sector-specific for that reason.
- Higher education bodies carry the additional requirement to have particular regard to freedom of speech and academic freedom alongside it.
- Organisations that are not specified authorities sometimes adopt similar arrangements voluntarily; that is a choice rather than a duty, and worth recording as such.
What you have to be able to show
The list an inspector, insurer or auditor actually works through.
- A risk assessment appropriate to the organisation and its functions, and when it was last reviewed.
- Staff training: who has had it, at what level, and when it is due again.
- The referral process, and that staff know how to use it.
- Evidence of partnership working with the relevant local arrangements.
- Policies covering the areas the guidance addresses for your sector.
- Records of decisions taken, including where a concern was considered and not referred.
How DutyHub records it
DutyHub does not carry out any of the work below. It records who did, when, and what they found.
The assessment with a review date
It carries the date it was done and the date it is next due, so a lapse changes colour before anybody is asked about it.
Training with a refresh cycle
Coverage is a count against headcount rather than a folder, so a gap after turnover is visible rather than assumed away.
Decisions recorded as decisions
Including the ones where a concern was considered and no referral made — that reasoning is the part nobody writes down and the part that is hardest to reconstruct.
Held with the right visibility
These records are sensitive. Record-level permissions and the audit trail apply here as they do to any other restricted record, and who has seen one is itself recorded.
Start with what applies to you
Add your premises and answer a short set of questions about them. DutyHub works out which duties land on which building, and shows you the gaps before anybody else finds them.
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