Persons may be refused a British passport or may have their existing passport withdrawn on a number of grounds, including that their grant or continued enjoyment of passport facilities is contrary to the public interest. Public interest grounds include seeking to harm the UK or its allies by travelling on a British passport to, for example, engage in terrorism-related activity.

From November 2013 to 11 November 2014, the Royal Prerogative power to withdraw or refuse a British Passport has been exercised 21 times on public interest grounds against British citizens thought to be involved in the support of ISIL and other extremist groups in Syria and Iraq.

We have no Embassy in Syria and are not routinely informed of the deaths of British nationals in the country. The difficulty of collecting information in a conflict zone, in particular when individuals have often deliberately chosen to disguise their intentions and their identity, means that the Government has no means of reliably assembling this information.

We believe that approximately 500 individuals from the UK have now travelled to the region since the start of the conflict. It is estimated half of these have returned. Not all of these individuals will have been involved in fighting.Recent comparable estimates of travellers/fighters for selected countries where some data has been reported publically are as follows:


o France: over 700

o Germany: 400

o Belgium: 300

o Netherlands: 130

o Austria: 140

o Denmark: over 100

o USA: just over 100

o Canada: Roughly 100

o Sweden: 80

o Spain: 60

o Australia: at least 60.

The Royal Prerogative is an important tool to disrupt individuals who seek to travel on a British passport to engage in, for example, fighting, extremist activity or terrorist training overseas and might return to the UK.

The Prerogative power has been exercised 14 times between April 2013 and the end of March 2014 on public interest grounds to disrupt the travel of individuals seeking to engage in terrorism related activity or other serious and organised crime.

Any decision to refuse or withdraw a British passport is made after careful consideration and the decision must be necessary and proportionate.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) budget for counter terrorism work is comprised of a range of funding streams, as well as being incorporated into the overall approach taken to assist priority counter-terrorism partner countries.

The main fund for terrorism-related assistance is the Counter Terrorism Programme Fund (CTPF). The tri-departmental (FCO, Ministry of Defence, Department for International Development) Conflict Pool supports complementary work in some fragile and conflict-affected states by tackling the root causes of terrorism through upstream conflict prevention activities. As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement on 24 June 2014, Official Report, column WS107-108, total conflict resources for the financial year 2014-15 have increased to £683 million, of which £239m has been allocated to the Conflict pool.

The budget for the CTPF for the financial years 2010-11 to 2013-14 was £38 million / £38 million / £36 million / £30 million respectively. The administration budget for CTD from the financial years 2010-11 to 2013-14 was £340,500 / £572,500 / £345,000 / £237,500 respectively. The administration budget for CTD in 2014-15 is £211,000. A Written Ministerial Statement will follow on the FCO Strategic Programme Fund allocation for 2014-15, which will include the CTPF.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Counter Terrorism Programme Fund (CTPF) is the main fund for terrorism-related assistance to foreign countries used by the FCO Counter Terrorism Department. This is complemented by other budgets used for counter-terrorism related activities and the tri-departmental (FCO, Department for International Development and Ministry of Defence) Conflict Pool, as set out in the Written Ministerial Statement on 24 June 2014, Official Report, column WS107-108. We constantly monitor and review our projects, programmes and diplomatic engagement as our part of the wider Government efforts on counter-terrorism, to ensure our resources are having the maximum possible impact in the right places as the global security environment changes. It is not the case that important activities have ceased or are now under-funded.

The FCO’s work on counter-terrorism goes well beyond CTPF - it is at the heart of our diplomacy across our overseas network, particularly in areas of

instability. We have, for example, recently: opened an embassy in Mogadishu to support our work on stability and security in Somalia; brought together key players on Nigeria to secure much needed assistance to tackle the threat from Boko Haram; and continued our work to stop terrorists getting their hands on money to fund their activities through leading efforts on disrupting financial flows from sources such as ‘Kidnap for Ransom’.

We are currently reviewing a number of specific counter-terrorism options to assist the Iraqi government. However, any assistance can only be truly effective alongside an urgent show of unity by Iraq’s leaders. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), reinforced this message when he met with leaders across Iraq’s communities during his visit to Baghdad and Erbil at the end of June.

The Counter-Terrorism Department is one of the largest policy departments in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). We constantly monitor and review our projects, programmes and diplomatic engagement, as our part of the wider Government efforts on counter-terrorism, to ensure our resources are having the maximum possible impact in the right places as the global security environment changes.