UK Government introduced the National Security (State Threats) Act 2026, giving the Home Secretary powers to designate foreign state bodies and criminalise support to designated bodies.
The first bodies to be designated will be the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, and Russia’s GRU Volunteer Corps; offences could include life imprisonment for sabotage if Parliament approves.
The UK and EU issued a joint cyber sanctions package targeting Russian state actors and proxies, and the UK supported attribution of a failed attempted cyber-attack on Poland’s energy infrastructure to Russia’s FSB Centre 16; the UK says it has sanctioned over 3,400 targets linked to Russia’s war effort.
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Thank you, Chair. The United Kingdom has tabled this current issue to put on record recent decisions taken by the UK Government to strengthen our response to growing hybrid threats. The UK defines state threats as overt or covert actions by foreign governments that fall short of direct armed conflict but go beyond legitimate diplomacy and expected statecraft. These actions harm or threaten the safety and interests of...
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