Hogan-Howe was criticised in the wake of the 2015 Sousse attacks, after a father and his young daughter paraded at Parliament Square with the flag of ISIS (ISIL). Hogan-Howe supported his officers after they had refused to arrest the pair, and said that carrying an ISIS flag is 'not necessarily the worst thing in the world' and should not lead to an automatic arrest. This was contrary to an earlier statement by the then Prime Minister, who had written that "The position is clear. If people are walking around with ISIL flags or trying to recruit people to their terrorist cause, they will be arrested and their materials will be seized."