Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the level of (a) the resurgence of Daesh in Iraq and (b) the threat posed by Daesh on the stability in the Middle East.

Daesh's capability has been significantly degraded in recent times. Nonetheless, it continues to have a presence in northern and central Iraq where it continues to conduct small scale attacks against civilians, security forces and infrastructure by taking advantage of a permissive operating environment.

Daesh is one of many threats to stability in the Middle East. Regional partners and the international community must continue to disrupt Daesh's activity to limit the scope for Daesh to re-grow their support base. Any successful response to a Daesh resurgence in Iraq will depend on the effectiveness of security and governance and addressing poor socio-economic prospects and sectarian tensions.