National Security

David Burton-Sampson Excerpts

Thursday 14th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Jarvis]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for his continued advocacy of FIRS. It is an important operational tool. It is still relatively new—it will be a year old on 1 June—and it is the Government’s intention to bring forward an annual report to update Parliament on the progress that we are making with it. I cannot get into the specific registration of the two individuals that he has referenced, but I can tell him—I think he will know this, because he knows a lot about FIRS, but I say it for the benefit of other Members—that countries are considered separately, and decisions are made on a robust evidence base. I am not able to get into speculation about what further decisions may be made, but those will be communicated to Parliament in the normal way.

On the hon. Member’s second point about our wider resilience, that relates to my Cabinet Office responsibilities, but I give him an assurance that we are working across Government, including with partners in the Ministry of Defence, to guard robustly against the kind of threats that he describes.

[David Burton-Sampson (Southend West and Leigh) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for his statement, and for the work that the Government are doing to protect the Jewish community. My thoughts are with all those who have been victims of these attacks, and of antisemitism and hate crime. In my constituency of Southend West and Leigh, we have quite a significant and diverse Jewish community—Orthodox, Reform and Haredi. They are scared and concerned, and my concern after meeting some of those communities over recent weeks is that some do not know how to access the support available to them. Could my hon. Friend give them some advice?

[Dan Jarvis]

I am grateful for the points that my hon. Friend has raised, and for his reference to the importance of remembering the victims of terrorism. It is an important part of my responsibility that we ensure that we have appropriate support for those who have been subject to terrorist activity. That is why we are progressing, as a priority, work to deliver a new victims hub, which will offer an enhanced service for those who have been victims and their families, as well as developing a proposal to hold a national day of reflection to properly remember all those who have been the victim of terrorism.

On the points that my hon. Friend makes about British Jews in his constituency, I completely share other hon. Members’ thoughts about the unacceptable nature of the threats that we have seen in recent times. It is the responsibility of all of us to stand against those threats. That is an important priority for the Government, as I am sure it is for local authorities and police forces right around the country. If he has specific points of concern about the way that we are communicating information to members of that community, I would be happy to take that up with him offline.