Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of UK residents who are members of Daesh.

Membership of a proscribed organisation is an offence under section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and Al Qa’ida and Daesh have been proscribed in the UK since March 2001 and June 2014 respectively.

The Government takes proscription offences seriously. Investigations into the activities of proscribed organisations or individuals who may be members of proscribed organisations are an operational matter for the police and intelligence agencies. It would not be appropriate to publish data on intelligence related matters.

The Government publishes quarterly national statistics on the use of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 and subsequent relevant legislation in Great Britain. This includes information on arrests, charges and convictions for proscription offences. The most recent publication up to year ending June 2020, was published on 17 September on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/operation-of-police-powers-under-the-terrorism-act-2000-quarterly-update-to-june-2020.