Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to protect (1) British citizens, and (2) governing institutions, against espionage and foreign surveillance.

The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy identifies countering state threats as a key priority for safeguarding our democracy, society and economy. Our approach, is to deter states from aggressive acts through the prospect of punishment by detecting, attributing and responding accordingly; and by denying them the opportunity to act, through reducing our vulnerabilities and improving our resilience.

During the Queen’s Speech in May, the Government announced plans for new legislation to provide the security services and law enforcement with additional tools to tackle the evolving threat of hostile activity by states. Following this, the Home Office launched a public consultation on legislative proposals that seek to:

• update existing counter espionage laws to reflect the modern threat and legislative standards;
• create new offences, tools and powers to detect, deter and disrupt hostile activity in and targeted at the UK; and
• improve our ability to protect official data and ensure the associated offences reflect the greater ease with which significant harm can be done in an increasingly digital world.