Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to monitor UK citizens suspected to be travelling, or are found to have travelled, to the Middle East to fight for ISIS and similar radical groups to ensure that upon their return they will not pose an internal threat through their own actions or the radicalisation of others.

The Government takes extremely seriously the threat posed by those who travel from the UK to join terrorist movements abroad and who might return with enhanced capabilities which they may intend to use against the UK or the intention of radicalising others.

The investigation and monitoring of individuals who pose a threat to our national security is an operational matter for the police and Security Service. Prosecution is always the preferred option for tackling terrorists. But where this is not possible a range of other disruptions may be used.

These include disrupting travel by cancelling British passports on public interest grounds, dual nationals’ deprivation of British citizenship and exclusion from the UK to prevent their return, and interviews at the border as part of Counter Terrorist investigations.

We have also proscribed a number of terrorist groups active in the Syrian conflict, including ISIS. Membership or support for a proscribed organisation is a criminal offence.

Those who return from Syria are individually assessed and where further investigation is not warranted we can provide tailored counter-radicalisation interventions to support the returnee and dissuade them from travelling again or radicalising others.