Iranian State Threats

Damian Hinds Excerpts

Tuesday 4th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Dan Jarvis]

My hon. Friend makes an important point—that concern will be shared right across the House. I spoke in my opening remarks about the importance that we attach to ensuring that all communities in our country are not just safe but feel as if they are safe. He is absolutely right to reference the importance of ensuring that our Jewish communities feel that they are both properly valued and properly protected. He will have heard me refer to the important work of the Community Security Trust, to which we have made a significant financial commitment to support that work. I have written to the trust today, and will meet it, I hope, in the very near future. It does extraordinary work, and we are grateful for that. I am very happy to take this opportunity to reassure him and all Members of our continued commitment to work with the trust in the future.

[Damian Hinds (East Hampshire) (Con)]

I welcome what the Security Minister said about the inclusion of Iran in the enhanced tier of FIRS. Can he confirm—I hope that the ISC will look at this—that as that system operationalises, it will also cover more complex situations in which it is not as straightforward as somebody taking instruction from an organ of that state or from some other organisation, including under FIRS, or indeed situations in which there is no actual instruction or relationship at all but somebody chooses to act on that organ’s behalf?

[Dan Jarvis]

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his previous work. He makes an important point, and I can absolutely give him the assurances that he seeks. We will have much more to say about that in future, but I hope he recognises that today marks a significant step forward. This measure was introduced by the previous Government, and we think that it is the right way to proceed and are seeking to progress it at pace.