NEWS – “without comment”
Home secretary pledges new powers to target foreign intelligence agencies seeking to recruit ‘criminals and misfits’
Recommendations include greater stop and search powers and the removal of suspects’ passports, while foreign agents operating in the UK could also be criminalised.
By Duncan Gardham, security journalist
Monday 19 May 2025 UK
Abbreviated Version of this Article:
The home secretary has pledged to introduce new powers to ban foreign intelligence agencies seeking to recruit “criminals, proxy groups, misfits and private investigators” in the UK.
Yvette Cooper said the government would emulate counter-terrorism legislation to plug gaps in areas including proscription to ban organisations such as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC).
It comes after a government watchdog said new powers should create a “banned list” of foreign intelligence agencies seeking to recruit for their work in the UK and abroad.
Other recommendations include outlawing “inviting support” for banned foreign intelligence services, greater stop and search powers, and the removal of suspects’ passports, in an echo of the current terrorism legislation.
Foreign agents and their allies who use the UK to prepare activity on targets abroad would also be criminalised.
It comes after six Bulgarians were jailed for conducting surveillance operations on diplomats, dissidents, journalists and Ukrainian soldiers in the UK and Europe on behalf of Russian intelligence.
Three men have also recently been charged over the alleged targeting of journalists at the Iran International TV station in London, the third such criminal case involving the opposition broadcaster in two years.
Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of state threat legislation, said the government “needs to do even more to warn the public about the risk posed by the most dangerous foreign intelligence services”.
The context of this new legislation is a tangible growing threat from what the home secretary described as “highly aggressive state bodies”, most notably Russia, China and Iran.
Since 2022, the security services say they have foiled 20 potentially lethal Iranian-backed plots.
However, the proposed new laws would keep check on individuals, some of whom may not even come from those countries.
That is because, as Jonathan Hall KC sets out in his speech to thinktank the Policy Exchange, the internet is being used to recruit, task and even pay individuals to carry out the dirty work of foreign intelligence services.
He describes “young people who might have been attracted to a terrorist cause, now willing to carry out sabotage”, for rogue states.
So, the key change in legislation is to adapt laws that are used to ban membership of terrorist groups and apply them to foreign intelligence services, such as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
While few foreign intelligence services will ever act openly, the fact that such organisations actively aspire to damage national security should be “prominently exposed for public consumption,” he added.
Exposure would lead to a “harder operating environment” in which state entities would have less confidence in finding willing or unwitting assistance to carry out plans, securing finance or providing accommodation.
“Naming and shaming” in a high-profile manner, accompanied by open reasons, would also help attempts at “plausible deniability” for serious harm caused to the UK or its allies.
Mr Hall said there were “solid reasons” for creating a new power, equivalent to proscription under the Terrorism Act 2000.
He suggested a new order called a Statutory Alert and Liability Threat Notice (SALT Notice) that could be invoked by the home secretary against a foreign intelligence agency.
Mr Hall recommended a new offence of “inviting support” for a foreign intelligence service subject to a SALT notice because there might be “ideologically motivated” individuals tempted to carry out acts of espionage or sabotage.
She told the House of Commons that “malign activities” by or on behalf of foreign states have grown, and the threats we face have become “more complex and intertwined.”
MI5 state threats investigations have increased by nearly 50 per cent in a year and police investigations have increased five-fold since 2018, she said.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT: https://news.sky.com/story/home-secretary-pledges-new-powers-to-target-foreign-intelligence-agencies-seeking-to-recruit-criminals-and-misfits-13371031
Posted by: Ian (D. Withers)
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