Protecting our national security

The threat from foreign states of hostile activity against the UK’s interests is growing.  The National Security Bill completely overhauls and updates espionage laws and creates a whole suite of measures to enable law enforcement and intelligence agencies to deter, detect and disrupt the full range of modern-day state threats.

The proposed measures include: –

•  reform existing espionage laws;
• include new offences to tackle state-backed sabotage and foreign interference;
• create a registration scheme requiring individuals in the UK to register certain arrangements with foreign governments;
• enhance police powers to support the investigation of state threats activity;
• reform existing prohibited places provisions to protect the UK’s most sensitive sites;
• provide powers to allow state threats to be tackled at an early stage;
• introduce new tools of last resort to manage those who pose a threat but have not met the threshold for prosecution
• restrict the ability of convicted terrorists to receive civil legal aid and prevent their exploitation of civil damage systems

This Bill has now been sent to a Public Bill Committee which is expected to report to the House by Tuesday 13 September 2022.