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It is two years this month since Axel Rudakubana burst into a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, murdered Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe, and injured 10 other people. The government’s pledge to implement all 67 recommendations from the public inquiry signals its determination to protect the public in future. Its chair, Sir Adrian Fulford, said his most important finding was the failure by any organisation to “take ownership of the risk” posed by Rudakubana. He revealed his interest in violence multiple times, including when he was found on a bus with a knife in 2022. Rather than make an arrest, police sent him home.
Sir Adrian and the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, want to ensure that in future, police confronted by a young man with a knife, and with a similar track record, would behave differently. A key part of the problem is what they, and other officials who encountered Rudakubana, did and didn’t know. The plan is to close the gaps between the public services that he repeatedly slipped through.
Changing the rules about information-sharing within and between agencies might seem simple. But finding the mechanisms to do it is technically and ethically fraught – particularly when health records are involved, as they were in this case. Out-of-date IT is another challenge. Data does not flow smoothly even between police forces. A further issue is a lack of clarity about how risks are communicated between schools. Rudakubana’s previous referrals to the anti‑terror Prevent programme were not shared, leading to a failure to assess “cumulative risk” when later concerns were raised.
Some issues are in the process of being addressed already. Scrutiny of the sale of weapons is being tightened. New rules banning social media companies from offering services to children have been announced. The Department for Education is reviewing security guidance for out-of-school settings, such as leisure centres, and the tools used by schools to filter and monitor what pupils do online. The Law Commission is looking at the responsibilities of parents. The failure by Rudakubana’s family to warn the authorities about his behaviour was another of the inquiry’s key points. There may be a new obligation on taxi drivers to report criminal activity. Granular adjustments such as these to the protocols and processes of multiple services will not happen instantly. But this attention to detail is needed if things are to be done differently.
Perhaps the single biggest step forward has been the clarification that a person does not need to be motivated by a fixed ideology to merit a referral to Prevent. This was recommended in a separate review by David Anderson, to which the government has just issued its response. The risks posed by individuals – mostly young men – who are fixated on violence for its own sake are rightly viewed by the Home Office as a priority for the Southport inquiry’s second phase, which will run in parallel with policy work by a new government taskforce.
There can be no guarantee that these measures will make similar tragedies less likely. But having asked Sir Adrian to do this work, it is right that ministers are taking it seriously. Leaving the recommendations of some previous inquiries to gather dust has dented confidence in our democracy. The public, as well as victims and their families, need action.
