British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to overhaul the UK’s treason laws, the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported.
Johnson’s overhaul will see a new Treason Act, a new Espionage Act for tracking foreign agents and a rewriting of the Official Secrets Act to make it suitable for the digital era, the newspaper reported, citing Downing Street sources.
The newspaper described the overhaul as the biggest shakeup of the treason laws since 1695, saying it was being done to counter the threat posed by Russia and China.
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The move comes amid criticism of Johnson in the wake of damning report by the parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) that said officials had “turned a blind eye” and failed to investigate whether Russia influenced the EU referendum.
The parliamentary report, published on Tuesday, called for a full review into whether the Kremlin swayed the vote, which Johnson has rejected.
However, he is considering a range of reforms to strengthen the UK security regime in the wake of the ISC study, sources said.
The government is considering “additional powers to look at the activities of hostile states,” British Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps told Sky News last week. “That may include introducing new laws, which I think could be very relevant in this case, working with sort of like-minded international partners on something like the foreign agent registration laws that exist, for example, in the US and in Australia.”
The security services also want tougher measures to rein in British bankers, lawyers and services suppliers, the Mail said.
The government also plans to boost its ability to handle threats posed by Russia and China in space as part of the security and defense policy review under way, British Secretary of State for Defense Ben Wallace said late on Saturday.
The government on Thursday said it was concerned about a Russian satellite test that involved the launch of a projectile with the “characteristics of a weapon.”
“This week we have been reminded of the threat Russia poses to our national security with the provocative test of a weapon-like projectile from a satellite threatening the peaceful use of space,” Wallace wrote in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, adding that China also posed a threat.
“China, too, is developing offensive space weapons and both nations are upgrading their capabilities. Such behavior only underlines the importance of the review the [UK] government is currently conducting,” he added.
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