Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the role of Iran in supporting Shia Islamist groups in the UK through UK-registered charities; and if she will make a statement.

In July 2017 the Government concluded its internal review into the funding for Islamist extremist activity in the UK through a Written Ministerial Statement. The review has improved the Government’s understanding of the nature, scale and sources of funding for Islamist extremism in the UK.

The review’s single most important finding was that the most significant source of funding for Islamist extremism in the UK is small, private donations from UK-based individuals. There are however a small number of UK-based organisations with which there are extremism concerns, for which overseas funding is a significant source of income. In response to the review, the Charity Commission plan to introduce a requirement on charities to declare overseas sources of funding to increase transparency in this area.

The review’s report is classified but the Written Ministerial Statement is a comprehensive and representative reflection of the review’s findings. The Government has no plans to comment further on the review’s findings and it will not provide a running commentary on the groups, individuals or sources it considers to be of extremism concern.