The Vegan Society Welcomes the Removal of Veganism from NHS Prevent Training

Following involvement by The International Rights Network (IRN) and Dr. Jeanette Rowley, The Vegan Society’s legal expert on human rights, veganism has now been removed from the NHS Prevent counter-terrorism training materials.

Prevent, part of the UK government’s counter-terrorism strategy, is designed to identify individuals at risk of radicalisation. However, it came to The Vegan Society’s attention that veganism was being referenced in the training, implying a link with extremist behaviour. This has consequences for vegans in the workplace, who have complained to The Vegan Society that they have unfairly been accused of extremism, radicalisation, and terrorism.

This concern was raised by Dr. Rowley, who took action to ensure veganism was accurately represented as a legitimate, ethical belief protected by law. Dr. Rowley initially contacted the NHS, challenging the inclusion of veganism in the training and in her capacity as chair of the IRN submitted a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to obtain the training materials. After being redirected to the NHS’s training provider, Skills for Health, Dr. Rowley reiterated the concerns of lawyers and emphasised the public interest in understanding what examples NHS staff were being given during training. Skills for Health has since confirmed that references to veganism have now been removed from the Prevent training materials.

Dr. Rowley commented, “Vegans and transitioning vegans have been caught in the net of counter terrorism measures for pursuing or participating in what can safely be described as the normal everyday behaviours of many people who care, or grow to care about animal exploitation, animal suffering and the environment.

The cases brought to the attention of The Vegan Society highlight failures in Prevent awareness training. There is little doubt that these failures have caused anxiety and stress endured by individual vegans who should never have been subject to or investigated under counter terrorism strategy.

We are pleased that Skills for Health has now confirmed that veganism has been removed from the NHS Prevent training materials. This outcome is a critical step towards ensuring that ethical veganism, a protected belief, is not misrepresented or mischaracterised by public institutions.”

The Vegan Society remains committed to ensuring that public bodies understand and respect veganism as a moral philosophy rooted in compassion and non-violence, and it continues to work to protect veganism from misrepresentation.