Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are considering further legislative measures to strengthen the UK's response to hostile state espionage.

The National Security Act 2023 overhauled and updated our espionage offences and created a suite of measures to enable our law enforcement and intelligence agencies to deter, detect and disrupt the full range of modern-day state threats.

The Government keeps all counter-espionage legislation under review to ensure it continues to allow us to tackle the growing and diversifying range of state threats that have evolved since the UK last substantively legislated on this issue.

Last year, the previous Home Secretary commissioned Jonathan Hall KC (the Independent Reviewer of State Threats Legislation) to conduct a review evaluating what powers under terrorism legislation could be emulated to tackle state-based security threats to the UK. Mr Hall KC recommended introducing a State Threats Proscription-style Tool that would be more effective in disrupting state-linked organisations, along with several other recommendations. The Government will legislate to take forward these recommendations, as parliamentary time allows.