Britain is to host a new permanent Five Eyes counter-extremism hub bringing together specialists from the UK, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to identify emerging violent threats and intervene before they escalate.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood secured agreement for the Countering Violent Extremism Hub at the Five Country Ministerial in Sydney, with the centre to be based in the UK capital.
The Home Office says the new operation will pool intelligence, expertise and resources from across the five countries, allowing partners to identify patterns of behaviour, share lessons from previous attacks and develop threat assessments and prevention initiatives.
The agreement also includes a new diversion programme aimed particularly at tackling online radicalisation among children and young people.
Permanent Five Eyes hub to be based in UK
The new Countering Violent Extremism Hub will bring together counter-terrorism and counter-extremism specialists from all five members of the Five Eyes security partnership.
The Government says the permanent centre will improve intelligence sharing and collaboration while reducing duplication between the countries.
Officials will examine emerging patterns of behaviour and risks before they escalate into violence, with the resulting work intended to help intelligence and law-enforcement agencies intervene earlier.
The Home Office said the hub would allow the five countries to learn from each other in real time and coordinate prevention initiatives against rapidly evolving threats.
Ministers target online radicalisation of young people
Alongside the hub, Five Eyes ministers have agreed a new diversion programme intended to allow authorities to act more quickly when people show signs of radicalisation or develop a fixation with violence.
The programme will complement the UK's existing Prevent system by helping professionals identify vulnerable people online, connect them with appropriate support and refer them into Prevent where necessary.
The Government has highlighted the radicalisation of children and young people online as a particular concern, alongside violent networks and the increasing use of new technologies including artificial intelligence.
Pressure on technology companies over harmful content
The Five Eyes partners will also work with technology companies, industry and governments to accelerate action against harmful extremist material online.
The Home Office says the countries will jointly increase pressure for platforms to remove material that may not itself be illegal but breaches their terms of service.
That distinction is significant: the announcement does not create a new general criminal offence covering such material. Instead, the Government argues that coordinated international pressure can make it harder for extremists to use online platforms for recruitment, radicalisation and the distribution of violent content.
Mahmood says extremist threat is evolving
Mahmood said violent extremism continued to evolve and was increasingly being fuelled by new technologies.
She said bringing together intelligence and expertise from Britain's closest international partners would strengthen their ability to disrupt dangerous networks and prevent violence before lives were put at risk.
The Home Secretary said online radicalisation among children and young people was a particular international concern and argued that the new diversion programme would enable authorities to act faster.
Prevent faces changing threat landscape
The announcement comes as the Home Office acknowledges an increasingly fragmented ideological landscape in referrals to Prevent.
An official Prevent factsheet published earlier this month says referrals involving a fascination with extreme violence and mass-casualty attacks have continued to rise, while a significant number of referrals involve individuals for whom no ideology has been identified.
The Home Office says it is already testing new approaches to identify people at risk of online radicalisation and translate those concerns into timely and proportionate interventions.
Prevent itself remains an early-intervention programme intended to stop people becoming involved in or supporting terrorism and operates in the non-criminal space.
Five Eyes expands security cooperation
The Five Eyes partnership has long involved close intelligence and security cooperation between Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The new UK-based hub creates a permanent joint structure specifically focused on violent extremism, emerging behavioural threats and earlier intervention.
The Home Office has formally confirmed the agreement and the establishment of the hub, although detailed information about staffing levels, its precise location, budget and timetable for becoming fully operational has not yet been published.