UK National Security Act 2023 receives Royal Assent, creating new spying offences

The National Security Act 2023 received Royal Assent, the formal approval by the monarch that turns a bill into law, on 11 July 2023. It was the most significant overhaul of the UK's counter-espionage legislation in more than a century.

The Act modernised laws that dated largely from the Official Secrets Acts of 1911, 1920 and 1939. It created new offences covering the obtaining or disclosure of protected information for a foreign power, including under Sections 1 and 3, and made it a crime to assist a foreign intelligence service. It also introduced offences related to sabotage, foreign interference and prohibited places, and a registration scheme for foreign influence was set up under the same legislation.

The government argued that the older laws were not suited to modern threats from hostile states, including Russia, China and Iran. The Act gave police and prosecutors clearer tools to charge people acting for foreign powers, and its provisions have since been used in espionage cases that reach the courts.