Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with the Charity Commission on the potential use of religious charities by networks aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Ministers and officials regularly meet with the Charity Commission to discuss a range of issues relating to the regulation of charities.

The Charity Commission is alive to the risks of state threats to the charity sector and works with other agencies to protect the sector from the risks of being exploited. The Charity Commission has consistently been clear that it will respond robustly where there proves to have been wrongdoing.

We work closely with a range of partners to tackle malign state-backed influence in our society. Where there is clear evidence that Iranian-linked or aligned organisations are undertaking unacceptable activity, the Government will respond accordingly.

We continue to take strong action and hold the Iranian regime to account. This includes placing Iran – including the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) – on the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme to bolster our oversight of Iran’s influence activities. The UK has already also imposed more than 550 sanctions on Iranian individuals and organisations. This includes the IRGC in its entirety. Most recently, this month we sanctioned prolific IRGC members for their role in recent brutality against protestors.