Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the foreign influence registration scheme captures foreign funding donated to UK sources seeking to influence the actions of local councils, including divestment policies in (a) Local Government Pension Schemes and (b) Trident.

The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) is designed to increase transparency around foreign power-directed activities in the UK. The provision of foreign funding alone does not require registration under either tier of FIRS. Only where an individual or organisation is provided funding by a foreign power and is directed to use that funding to carry out political influence activities, or a wider set of activities for Russia or Iran, may that individual or organisation be required to register.

Political influence activities that have been directed by a foreign power and seek to influence Ministerial and non-ministerial departments, as set out in paragraph 37 of the political influence tier guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foreign-influence-registration-scheme-political-influence-tier), could be in scope of the scheme. This list does not include local councils.

However, activities targeted at local councils may be in scope of FIRS, where directed by Russia or Iran. It would not be appropriate to speculate further on individual scenarios.