--- aliases: - TA 2000 category: Law Enforcement & Legal created: 2026-09-22 location: United Kingdom relations: - fn: 9 reverse: true role: membership of National Action (s. 11); documents (s. 58) start: 2021-04-01 type: subject_of with: '[[Benjamin Hannam]]' start: 2000 summary: United Kingdom statute defining terrorism, under which the Home Secretary proscribes organisations; since 2016 it has been used against National Action, Sonnenkrieg Division, Atomwaffen, The Base and Terrorgram. tags: - Law - UK - CounterTerrorism - Proscription updated: 2026-09-22 --- The Terrorism Act 2000 is the principal counter-terrorism statute of the [United Kingdom](/places/united-kingdom/). Section 1 defines terrorism as "the use or threat of action" involving serious violence against a person, serious damage to property, danger to life, a serious risk to public health or safety, or serious interference with an electronic system, where the use or threat "is designed to influence the government or an international governmental organisation or to intimidate the public or a section of the public" and "is made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause"; the words on international organisations and racial causes were added by later amendment.[^1] ### Proscription Under section 3 an organisation is proscribed if it is listed in Schedule 2, and the Home Secretary may add one by order "only if he believes that it is concerned in terrorism," meaning that it commits or participates in, prepares for, promotes or encourages, or is otherwise concerned in terrorism. Section 11 makes it an offence to belong or profess to belong to a proscribed organisation.[^2] [National Action](/organizations/national-action/), which the Home Office describes as "a racist neo-Nazi group that was established in 2013," was proscribed in December 2016 by Home Secretary Amber Rudd, after it had celebrated the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox.[^3][^4] The [Sonnenkrieg Division](/organizations/sonnenkrieg-division/), which the Home Office describes as a splinter of the System Resistance Network, "an alias of the proscribed group National Action," was added by an order made on February 27, 2020; the [Feuerkrieg Division](/organizations/feuerkrieg-division/) followed in July 2020, the [Atomwaffen Division](/organizations/atomwaffen-division/) in April 2021, [The Base](/organizations/the-base/) in July 2021, the [Terrorgram Collective](/organizations/terrorgram-collective/) in April 2024, and the [Maniac Murder Cult](/organizations/maniac-murder-cult/), the [Russian Imperial Movement](/organizations/russian-imperial-movement/) and Palestine Action in July 2025.[^3][^5][^6] [Combat 18](/organizations/combat-18/) and the [Order of Nine Angles](/organizations/order-of-nine-angles/) were not on the list as of July 2026; on the day the Atomwaffen order was announced, HOPE not hate said the government had missed an opportunity to proscribe the Order of Nine Angles.[^3][^7] ### Prosecutions Section 58 makes it an offence to collect or record information "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism," to possess a document containing it, or, by later amendment, to view such a document on the internet.[^8] [Benjamin Hannam](/people/benjamin-hannam/), a probationary constable of the [Metropolitan Police](/organizations/metropolitan-police/), was convicted at the [Old Bailey](/organizations/old-bailey/) on April 1, 2021, of National Action membership under section 11 and of two section 58 offences, among other counts.[^9] [Michael Szewczuk](/people/michael-szewczuk/) pleaded guilty to five section 58 counts, including possession of the *White Resistance Manual* and the *Al Qaeda Manual*; [Harry Vaughan](/people/harry-vaughan/) to twelve; [Jack Reed](/people/jack-reed/), convicted at Manchester Crown Court in November 2019 at sixteen, to three alongside preparation of terrorist acts; [Ben John](/people/ben-john/), a criminology student, was convicted at Leicester Crown Court on August 12, 2021; and [Ashley Podsiad-Sharp](/people/ashley-podsiad-sharp/), a prison officer at HMP Armley in Leeds, was convicted at Sheffield Crown Court in 2023.[^10][^11][^12][^13][^14] Schedule 7 allows officers to stop and question travellers at ports. [Jacek Tchorzewski](/people/jacek-tchorzewski/) was stopped under it at Luton Airport on February 20, 2019, before a flight to Poland; his seized phone produced the ten section 58 counts to which he pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey on June 21, 2019.[^15] [Declan George-Candiani](/people/declan-george-candiani/) was stopped at Stansted Airport on August 13, 2024, and convicted at the Old Bailey on October 3, 2024, of two counts under section 58(1).[^16] [Cameron Finnigan](/people/cameron-finnigan/) was sentenced at the Old Bailey on January 16, 2025, for possessing an 11-page document on vehicle-ramming and knife and firearm attacks, among other offences.[^17] [^1]: Terrorism Act 2000, c. 11, s. 1, as amended. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/section/1 [^2]: Terrorism Act 2000, ss. 3 and 11. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/section/3 ; https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/section/11 [^3]: Home Office, "Proscribed terrorist groups or organisations," accessible version, updated July 7, 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proscribed-terror-groups-or-organisations--2/proscribed-terrorist-groups-or-organisations-accessible-version [^4]: Crown Prosecution Service. "Members of banned British neo-Nazi group jailed." 2018. https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/members-banned-british-neo-nazi-group-jailed [^5]: The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2020, S.I. 2020/200, art. 2. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/200/made [^6]: Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2025, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2025/9780348273373; Hansard, House of Commons, July 2, 2025, "Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism." [^7]: HOPE not hate. "Government misses opportunity to proscribe Order of Nine Angles," April 19, 2021. https://hopenothate.org.uk/2021/04/19/atomwaffen-order-nine-angles/ [^8]: Terrorism Act 2000, s. 58, as amended. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/section/58 [^9]: Crown Prosecution Service. "Police officer guilty of membership of banned group and terrorism offences." April 1, 2021. https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/police-officer-guilty-membership-banned-group-and-terrorism-offences [^10]: "Two British teens just convicted for promoting far-right terrorism online." *The Washington Post,* June 18, 2019. [^11]: "Teenage Satanist neo-Nazi avoids jail after admitting 14 terror offences." *ITV News London,* November 2, 2020. https://www.itv.com/news/london/2020-11-02/teenage-satanist-neo-nazi-harry-vaughan-sentenced-for-terror-offences [^12]: "Neo-Nazi teenager convicted of preparing to commit terrorist acts." *ITV News Tyne Tees,* November 20, 2019. [^13]: GOV.UK. "Ben John's sentence increased following personal intervention by the Solicitor General." January 2022. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ben-johns-sentence-increased-following-personal-intervention-by-the-solicitor-general--3 [^14]: R v Ashley Podsiad Sharp, Sentencing Remarks, Sheffield Crown Court, August 31, 2023, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC. https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/R-v-Ashley-Podsiad-Sharp.pdf [^15]: Campaign Against Antisemitism. "Hitler-loving neo-Nazi who said it was his 'dream' to create a bloodbath arrested at Luton Airport and sentenced to four years." September 2019. [^16]: Metropolitan Police. "Man convicted of terrorism offences after schedule 7 stop." https://news.met.police.uk/news/man-convicted-of-terrorism-offences-after-schedule-7-stop-501766 [^17]: R v Cameron Finnigan, Sentencing Remarks, Central Criminal Court, January 16, 2025, Mr Justice Jay. https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/R-v-Finnigan.pdf