Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has met with his French counterparts to consider parallel legislation to prevent outside interference in domestic elections.

The Government takes any attempts to intervene in democratic processes very seriously. It is, and always will be, an absolute priority to protect our democratic and electoral processes, including from foreign interference.

We have a robust toolkit of measures including the foreign interference offence and foreign influence registration scheme introduced under the National Security Act 2023, the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which coordinates work to protect UK political parties, elected officials and electoral infrastructure from threats including foreign interference, the Joint Election Security and Preparedness unit, which coordinates work to protect UK elections and referendums, and the Counter Political Interference and Espionage Action Plan launched last month to disrupt and deter spying from states.

Additionally, on 16 December the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government announced an independent review into countering foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics, led by Philip Rycroft. We will consider how to take forward any recommendations from the review, including through the upcoming Elections Bill.