Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make it his policy to add the political wing of Hamas to the list of proscribed organisations.

Hamas Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades (Hamas IDQ), the military wing of Hamas, was proscribed in March 2001. A decision to proscribe an organisation must be based on a belief that it is concerned in terrorism as defined in the Terrorism Act 2000. We do not routinely comment on whether an organisation is or is not under consideration for proscription.