Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies on preventing infiltration of the police by foreign intelligence agents of the charges brought against a New York City Police Department officer for spying on Tibetan immigrants for the Chinese Government.

The Government takes the threat posed by hostile state activity extremely seriously, and seeks to protect the UK through strategies and structures that combine the UK’s diplomatic, intelligence and military capabilities, and its hard and soft power, to maximum effect. We act in concert with our allies, seeking to lead the West’s collective response to hybrid threats to our societies and values. And as set out in the Queen’s Speech in December 2019, we are developing new legislation to tackle hostile state activity.

Decisions on the recruitment of officers across England and Wales are for the chief officer of the police force concerned to make, on a case by case basis. These decisions must be taken in accordance with the statutory Code of Practice on Vetting and Authorised Professional Practice (APP) on vetting, which are issued by the College of Policing.