Policy background Part 1 – Espionage, sabotage and persons acting for foreign powers
Part 1 replaces the existing offence of espionage, and other measures contained in the Official Secrets Acts 1911, 1920 and 1939 with a suite of new offences and accompanying powers. Through a ‘foreign power condition’ and definitions of a ‘foreign power’ and ‘foreign power threat activity’ the Act takes a consistent approach to determining when harmful activity is carried out for or on behalf of, or with the intention to benefit, a foreign power and applies the supporting measures accordingly. The measures:
Reform the espionage offences to reflect the evolving threat and the interconnected nature of the modern world. The existing legislation has a focus on espionage through more ‘traditional’ methods. Espionage is tackled by new offences in the Act that are designed to capture modern methods of spying, and provide the ability to impose penalties reflecting the serious harm that can arise;
Establish a standalone regime for protecting sensitive sites from espionage and other state threats, modernising the list of protected sites (referred to in the 1911 Act and this Act as "prohibited places") and creating new offences and accompanying police powers to capture harmful activity around sites that are critical to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom;
Establish a new offence to protect against the theft of trade secrets. The offence targets state-linked, illicit acquisition, retention, or disclosure of "trade secrets" that protect sensitive industrial, commercial, or economic information;
Explicitly criminalise assisting a foreign intelligence service in carrying out activities in the UK, or overseas where such conduct is prejudicial to the UK’s safety and interests;
Establish a new offence of sabotage designed to capture state-linked saboteurs who act in a way that is prejudicial to the UK’s safety or interests by causing damage, including through cyber-attacks, to assets (including critical infrastructure, electronic systems, and information);
Establish a new offence of foreign interference where conduct is intended to have a specified negative effect and certain conditions are satisfied. The Act also increases the maximum custodial penalties for certain election-related offences that are carried out for or on behalf of, or with the intention to benefit, a foreign power;
Replace the existing acts preparatory offence under the Official Secrets Act 1920 with a new offence to ensure that it can effectively target harmful preparatory state threats activity. This provides a key tool which prevents threats to the UK’s national security by criminalising preparatory conduct before serious and potentially irreversible harm occurs;
Create a new state threats aggravating factor to ensure that where individuals commit offences other than those in this Act with a proven link to a foreign power, the state threat link is appropriately recognised;
Ensure that the police have the appropriate powers needed to intervene earlier in an investigation and to enable the successful prosecution of cases; and
Amend Schedule 3 to the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 to allow counter-terrorism police officers to retain copies of confidential business material (material acquired in the course of a trade or business that is held in confidence) without the authorisation of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner. A new Counter-Terrorism Police authorisation procedure will be set out in the Code of Practice, which will require an officer of at least the rank of superintendent to authorise access to such material. allows counter-terrorism police to progress operations and investigations into state threats activity 1 at the required pace and reflects the position in Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000 (on which the power in Schedule 3 was modelled).