The National Security (State Threats) Bill has officially become law after receiving Royal Assent yesterday.
The new legislation gives the Home Secretary the authority to designate organisations they reasonably believe are, or have been, involved in hostile activity on behalf of foreign states.
This includes actions such as espionage and targeting political dissidents, with the aim of protecting the UK’s safety and national interests.
The government will also publish any alternative names or aliases used by designated organisations. This is intended to stop them from avoiding scrutiny by operating under different identities.
The law introduces a series of new criminal offences for anyone who supports or assists designated organisations or benefits from them.
It is now a criminal offence to support a designated body, including by encouraging support for it or expressing views or beliefs in its favour.
People will also commit an offence if they deliberately help a designated organisation carry out activities linked to the UK. This applies where someone intends to provide significant assistance or where they engage in conduct that is likely to provide such assistance and they know, or reasonably should know, that their actions could help the organisation.
The legislation also makes it an offence to obtain, accept or keep material benefits provided by, or on behalf of, a designated organisation where the individual knows, or reasonably should know, where those benefits came from. It also covers anyone who agrees to accept such benefits.
Anyone found guilty of these offences could face a prison sentence of up to 14 years, a fine, or both.
Individuals and organisations will have the right to challenge their designation by applying to the Home Secretary to have it removed.
The Home Office outlined a hypothetical example to explain how the law could be used.
In the example, an overseas state-backed company is designated because it helps carry out espionage against the UK on behalf of a foreign power.
A senior employee at a UK military technology company, which supplies military-grade weapons and defence systems under government contracts, is then approached by an undercover intelligence officer working for that foreign power.
The employee is aware that the state-backed company has been designated. Despite this, they willingly share sensitive information about UK government contracts during discussions with the undercover officer, providing material likely to assist the organisation’s activities.
The legislation updates the National Security Act 2023 following growing concerns about hostile activity by foreign states.
Last year, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said the UK had experienced a 35% increase in state-threat activity compared with 2024.
The government concluded that the existing law no longer reflected the rapidly changing nature of modern security threats, prompting the introduction of the new measures.
