Committee publication · Correspondence · 15 October 2025 · HC 570
letter, dated 23 September 2025, from the Security Minister to the Speaker relating to terrorism legislation
From: Speaker's Conference (2024)
Inquiry: Speaker’s Conference on the security of candidates, MPs and elections
Summary
Security Minister Dan Jarvis writes to the Speaker on 23 September 2025 setting out the government's position on applying counter-terrorism legislation to harassment and intimidation of MPs. He describes three operational protective measures already deployed—Operation Regency, Operation Bridger, and Operation Ford—and an offender-focused police strategy, while arguing that most online threats to MPs should be handled by territorial police under non-counter-terrorism powers rather than stretched counter-terrorism resources.
Key findings
- Government has enhanced protective security measures for MPs through Operation Regency, Operation Bridger, and Operation Ford (a dedicated officer network in every police force)
- An offender-focused police strategy now aims to drive down threats from known offenders with daily actionable intelligence sharing between Parliament and policing
- Jarvis agrees with the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation that 'in the majority of cases, individual tweets should not be addressed with terrorism powers'
- Counter-Terrorism Police are managing over 800 live terrorism investigations and thousands of subjects of interest; government argues their resources should prioritise public threats over online harassment of MPs
- Threats to MPs are currently filtered through Parliamentary Liaison and Investigations team and can be escalated to counter-terrorism policing if threshold is met
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Dan Jarvis MBE MP, Rt Hon Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Jonathan Hall KC, Vicki Evans, Jon Savell, Counter Terrorism Policing, Defending Democracy Taskforce
Notable line
“… in the majority of cases, individual tweets should not be addressed with terrorism powers.”
Key Quotes
“… the harassment and intimidation of public office holders instils fear and concern amongst those targeted. I am resolute in working to reduce any such behaviour”
“I would agree with the IRTL that, in the majority of cases, individual tweets should not be addressed with terrorism powers.”
“Counter Terrorism Police are working on more than 800 live investigations, involving thousands of 'subjects of interest' who are suspected of being directly involved in terrorism.”
“It is vital that we trust CTP to balance those threats and make determinations of where policing resource is best allocated.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗