Tag: Press Release

The press release issued by the Home Office on 18 October 2022.

For the first time, new legislation will compel those acting for a foreign power or entity to declare political influencing activity – and criminalise those who do not.

This change is being brought about by the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), which has been introduced to the UK Parliament via an amendment to the National Security Bill.

The bill brings in vital new measures to protect our national security and modernise existing counter-espionage laws to tackle covert influence.

The new scheme will increase the transparency of political influencing activity being carried out for a foreign power or entity; help safeguard UK democratic institutions from covert influence; and better inform us as to the nature, scale, and extent of foreign influence in our political affairs.

The public register will exist on a government website for political influence activities.

Tom Tugendhat, Security Minister, said:

Unfortunately, there are people working in secret to undermine the UK’s democracy and cause harm to our citizens.

For years I have advocated for the establishment of a foreign influence registration scheme to deter foreign powers from pursuing their pernicious aims through the covert use of agents and proxies.

I am delighted that the scheme we are introducing will help ensure our political affairs are protected, whilst embracing open and transparent engagement with foreign governments and entities which we continue to welcome.

Ken McCallum, Director General of the Security Service (MI5), said:

The UK is in strategic contest with states that seek to undermine our national security, democratic institutions and commercial advantage at an unprecedented scale. We need new, modern tools and powers to defend ourselves, proportionately but firmly.

Alongside the other vital measures introduced in the National Security Bill, the new Foreign Influence Registration Scheme will make it harder – and riskier – to operate covertly in the UK at the behest of a foreign power. It will also increase openness and transparency around the scale of foreign influence in our political affairs and make it harder for our adversaries to undermine our democracy. The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme is a modern power designed to tackle a modern threat, and I welcome its inclusion in the National Security Bill.

The scheme will be 2-tiered.

The primary tier will require the registration of political influence activities within the UK at the direction of a foreign power or entity. The person would need to declare who they are in an arrangement with, what activity they have been directed to undertake, and when the arrangement was made. They must do this within 10 days of the direction, or in any case, before the activity is carried out. Foreign entities will also be required to register their own political influence activities before carrying them out.

Notable exceptions to those who would need to register include those working for a foreign power in their official capacity, those with diplomatic immunity, those who provide legal services, those working for domestic and foreign news publishers and those in an arrangement to which the UK government, or someone acting for or on behalf of the Crown is party.

The penalty for failing to register, carrying out activities that aren’t registered, providing false or misleading information or any other foreign influence offence is a maximum of 2 years’ imprisonment, a fine or both.

The enhanced tier allows the Home Secretary to specify a foreign power or foreign power-controlled entity where necessary to protect the safety or interests of the UK, and with parliamentary approval, make it an offence for anyone to carry out any activity in the UK at their direction without it being registered. There is no restriction on which states could be named, to enable the UK to respond to emerging threats from any foreign power. The penalty for these offences is up to 5 years’ imprisonment, a fine or both.

Further powers added to the bill include those to protect UK interests from corrupt financial influence, covered by ‘Powers of arrest and detention.’ This will give investigators powers to monitor a suspect’s account in real-time; identify accounts held by suspects in UK financial institutions; and compel individuals or organisations to provide relevant information, produce documents and/or answer questions in relation to an investigation into foreign power threat activity. Obtaining a material benefit from a foreign intelligence service will also be made an offence.

The National Security Bill is currently passing through Parliament.

The press release issued by the Home Office on 17 October 2022.

The Home Office will launch a targeted review of police dismissals to raise standards and confidence in policing across England and Wales.

The internal review will be launched shortly and will help to ensure that the system is more effective in removing officers who are not fit to serve the public.

Baroness Casey’s interim report into the culture and standards at the Metropolitan Police Service, published today (Monday 17 October 2022) raises significant concerns, including that fewer officers are being dismissed, officers with multiple allegations made against them are still serving the public and police from ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented in the misconduct system.

The Home Office review is likely to consider:

the effectiveness of the existing system to dismiss those who fall seriously short of the standards expected by policing and the public
the impact of the introduction of changes to misconduct panels, including legally qualified chairs
whether forces are making use of their powers to discharge officers during their probationary period
Working with policing partners, it will also assess whether the regulatory framework for the police disciplinary system should be changed.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said:

“The public rightly expects the highest standards of behaviour from police officers and the vast majority meet this expectation. But recently too many high-profile incidents and reports, especially in London, have damaged trust – which is unfair on the public and lets down other serving officers.

“This cannot continue. Culture and standards in the police must improve. And where an officer has fallen seriously short of these expectations, demonstrable, public action must be taken.

“I have been clear it is absolutely vital police act to restore trust, return to common-sense policing and treat the public and victims with the respect they deserve.

“I welcome the Metropolitan Police’s commitment to tackling the issues raised in the Baroness Casey report and hope this review will also help to address underlying concerns.”

The government has already overhauled the police discipline system over the last 7 years, making it more transparent, more proportionate and more accountable – for example introducing public misconduct hearings in 2015 and bringing in the Police Barred List in 2017, ensuring that officers and staff who are dismissed cannot re-join the police.

In addition, the 2-part Angiolini Inquiry is currently examining the issues raised by the conviction of then-serving officer Wayne Couzens for the murder of Sarah Everard last year. The second part is expected to scrutinise wider issues for policing and the safety of women.

 

The press release issued by the Home Office on 17 October 2022.

The Home Office has launched a new Independent Examiner of Complaints (IEC) service for customers of the Department’s immigration services.

In doing so, the Home Office has fulfilled another of the recommendations in Wendy Williams’ Windrush Lessons Learned Review, published in March 2020.

Introducing an IEC service brings the Department in line with several other public service delivery departments such as the Department for Work and Pensions and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

If customers are not satisfied with the final response to their complaints, they will have an opportunity to have their case reviewed independently by the IEC.

Although the IEC will not have any remit over immigration decisions, which remain subject to existing appeal processes, they will apply greater scrutiny and ultimately increase public confidence in the customer services delivered by the Home Office, as well as helping to manage reputational risk.

In making her original recommendation, Wendy Williams proposed that the new service should have the ability to identify systemic issues within the immigration system. The IEC will achieve that by using the data and insight from complaints to consider why particular issues might be arising and feed them back into the department to support the continuous improvement of services.

The Home Office is pleased to announce that, following a fair and open recruitment process, Moi Ali has been appointed as the new Independent Examiner of Complaints. She will be supported by an Office for the IEC, based in Stoke-on-Trent.

Ms Ali has a background in independent complaints review. For the last 4 years she has been the Independent Assessor of Complaints for the Crown Prosecution Service and she will continue in that role on a part-time basis. She is passionate about providing a genuinely independent service, and about helping organisations to identify learning and wider lessons from complaints in order to improve their service.

Her approach is to understand the complainant journey and perspective, and to support staff to provide a complainant-centric service.

 

The press release issued by the Home Office on 17 October 2022.