The Official Secrets Act regime is out of date and ‘not fit for purpose’, according to the 55-page report by the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) into Kremlin influence, simply titled ‘Russia’.
‘Crucially, it is not illegal to be a foreign agent in this country,’ the report states. The outcome of a 2017 Law Commission consultation on a new Espionage Act is ‘still awaited’.
One specific issue an Espionage Act could address is ‘individuals acting on behalf of a foreign power and seeking to obfuscate this link’. The report refers to the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which dates back to the 1930s and requires everyone who represents the interests of a foreign power apart from accredited diplomats to register with the authorities and provide information about activities and finances. There is no UK equivalent.
In evidence to the ISC, the director-general of MI5 said FARA-type legislation would create ‘the basis therefore of being able to pursue under criminal means somebody not declaring, thereby being undercover… today, it is not an offence in any sense to be a covert agent … unless you acquire damaging secrets and give them to your masters’.
While unexplained wealth orders were introduced in January 2018 and can be applied to assets valued at more than £50,000, they ‘may not be that useful in relation to the Russian elite’… moreover, ‘there are practical issues around their use’. The report quotes the director general of the National Crime Agency, ‘Russians have been investing for a long period of time… you can track back and you can see how they will make a case in court that their wealth is not unexplained, it is very clearly explained’.
The report states there are ‘similar concerns in relation to sanctions’.
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