Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many British citizens who travelled to (1) Iraq, or (2) Syria, to join Islamic State have since returned to the UK; how many such individuals are being monitored by the security services; how often are their social media posts monitored; and how many have been prosecuted.

Since 2013 over 900 UK-linked individuals of national security concern have travelled to engage with the Syrian conflict, against the advice of the Foreign Office. Of these, approximately 25% have been killed in the conflict and just under half have returned to the UK.

All of those who have returned have been investigated and the majority have been assessed to pose no, or a low, security risk. As of 2018 there had been around 40 convictions of individuals prosecuted following their return from Syria, for a range of offences either connected to their activities overseas or as a result of subsequent Counter-Terrorism investigations.

It would not be appropriate to comment on ongoing operational activity by the Security Service.