Espionage offences in the UK\u2019s new National Security Act are so broadly defined that they \u201cwill result in cases of real harm\u201d with people wrongly investigated, according to the first review of state threats legislation.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Hall KC, an independent reviewer appointed by the home secretary, said the 2023 law had to be monitored against \u201cmisuse and overreach\u201d because it could extend into politics, journalism, protest and other day-to-day activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unavoidable that national security legislation hoists a flag for police involvement in broad reaches of human endeavour, with the risk of damaging mistakes by investigators and unjustified suspicion being cast on lawful activity,\u201d Hall wrote in a report laid before parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless exceptionally well exercised, the UK\u2019s novel and wide-ranging powers will result in cases of real harm where an individual is wrongly arrested or investigated, however well-intentioned,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The National Security Act was introduced to reform Britain\u2019s outdated official secrets acts, the first of which dated back to 1911.<\/p>\n
Archaic language and certain strict conditions had come to make prosecutions in certain spy cases impossible, including that of Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry who were accused of spying for China.<\/p>\n
Counter-terrorism police are currently engaged in a National Security Act investigation <\/a>after Sheffield Hallam University complied with demands from Beijing to halt research by Prof Laura Murphy<\/a> about human rights abuses in China.<\/p>\n Hall\u2019s warning is that the change in the law has the potential to go far in the other direction, and he listed a series of examples where legitimate activity could be classed as espionage under the new law.<\/p>\n Police and prosecutors would have to exercise discretion in cases such as the potential impact of the new offence of foreign interference, which could affect \u201cforeign policy work by thinktanks and journalists\u201d, Hall said.<\/p>\n Foreign interference is a broadly drawn offence under the law and it could, Hall said, include \u201clobbying, electioneering, journalism, marketing campaigns, humanitarian aid, social media activity\u201d if done with \u201cthe intention of benefiting a foreign power\u201d so long as there was some misrepresentation or criminal conduct involved.<\/p>\n It could in theory affect individuals arguing for \u201carms to Ukraine\/ Israel; foreign aid to Pakistan; rapprochement with Russia; more access to domestic markets for Chinese cotton\u201d in the media or thinktanks or \u201cforeign-funded NGOs or journalists who use deception (\u2018prohibited conduct\u2019) to expose corrupt individuals\u201d.<\/p>\n Though Hall said he was \u201creasonably confident\u201d prosecutors would not want to push borderline cases before the courts, there remained a risk that \u201ceditors and trustees of newspapers and thinktanks \u2026 will be stalked by fear of national security offending, and trim their conduct accordingly\u201d.<\/p>\n The lawyer also focused on one aspect of the act\u2019s foreign power condition, where an offence can be theoretically committed without the individual accused having any contact with another country, aimed at people seeking to help a hostile state without it being aware of it.<\/p>\n It could drag in \u201cjournalists, politicians and private individuals [who] may argue passionately in favour of arming Ukraine in its war against Russia or returning the Elgin marbles\u201d or anybody \u201cadvancing the interests of other states within the international pecking order\u201d of their own volition.<\/p>\n Protesters could also be disproportionately affected by new police powers that \u201crequire individuals to leave areas adjacent to prohibited places\u201d which include military bases, weapons sites, intelligence facilities and other crown land.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are insufficient safeguards built into the legislation to prevent unjustified incursions into public protest,\u201d Hall said, and recommended that additional safeguards in the form of a code of practice for police be created.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Espionage offences in the UK\u2019s new National Security Act are so broadly defined that they \u201cwill result in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":450930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[99,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-450929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115729332049764859","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}