Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed

Wednesday 6th November 2013 Ministerial Corrections

The following is the answer given by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), to the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz) following her statement to the House on Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed on 4 November 2013.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

I welcome what the Home Secretary has said about the burqa. This is not a case where the burqa is responsible. I urge her to look at the role of G4S and the tags that have been provided. As she knows, last week a number of cases were dropped after the police found out that there was a suggestion that tags had been tampered with; in fact, it was a question of wear and tear. Will she please investigate this again, rather than just accept that assurance? Was Mr Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed a British citizen? If he was, when did he acquire citizenship, bearing in mind the fact that he was a support of al-Shabaab, and does she have his passport?

[Mrs May]

On the last points, Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed is indeed a British citizen. I do not have his passport, but the police do. I know the right hon. Gentleman raised the same issue over the Magag case. On tags, as I said earlier, the police believe that, in this case, the tag functioned exactly as it should have done. He referred to the court case. The issue there was not about the effectiveness of the tags, but about reaching the evidence threshold for taking a criminal prosecution in relation to the operation of the tag.

[Official Report, 4 November 2013, Vol. 570, c. 27.]

Letter of correction from Theresa May:

An error has been identified in the answer given to the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz) on 4 November 2013.

The correct answer should have been:

[Mrs May]

On the last points, Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed is indeed a British citizen. I do not have his passport, Mohamed was not in possession of his British passport when he returned to the UK so there was no passport for the police to seize. I know the right hon. Gentleman raised the same issue over the Magag case. On tags, as I said earlier, the police believe that, in this case, the tag functioned exactly as it should have done. He referred to the court case. The issue there was not about the effectiveness of the tags, but about reaching the evidence threshold for taking a criminal prosecution in relation to the operation of the tag.