New National Security Act creates FARA-type register for UK

A new National Security law which the UK government says ‘brings together vital new measures to protect the British public, modernise counter-espionage laws and address the evolving threat to our national security,’ came into effect on 11 July, the day of its publication.

‘The new powers will help ensure that the UK remains the hardest operating environment for malign activity undertaken by foreign actors,’ the government said.

The new legislation makes provision for a scheme, the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (‘FIRS’) which will inevitably draw comparison with the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (‘FARA’).

FIRS, says the UK government, ‘criminalises those acting covertly for states which pose the greatest threat to our national security and strengthens the resilience of UK democracy by bringing transparency to foreign political influence.’ It says that the scheme, which has been ‘created to tackle covert influence in the UK’, is split into two parts:

‘The political tier of FIRS makes any political influence activity undertaken at the direction of a foreign power registerable; and the enhanced tier – which is designed to target those countries that pose a risk to the safety or interests of the UK – will require registration of arrangements that are entered into with a specified foreign power, or entity controlled by a foreign power. Failure to register when required will be a criminal offence.’

‘Russia remains the most acute threat to the UK’s security, though we have seen interference from China including to communities here in the UK, and Iran has made concerted efforts to kill or kidnap British or UK-based individuals,’ the government said.

‘For the first time there is an offence of foreign interference, meaning it will now be illegal to engage in conduct that interferes with fundamental rights, such as voting and freedom of speech, that are essential to the UK’s democracy,’ it said.

While the National Security Act appears not yet to have been published in its entirety on the government website, more details are at: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3154

https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/LLN-2022-0055/LLN-2022-0055.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/national-security-bill-becomes-law–2