Thread by @UKPolicyButcher

An @HSFlegal briefing on the concerns touched on in @pmdfoster's article is now available online. This is not about denying the reality or seriousness of malign activities by foreign governments 1/herbertsmithfreehills.com/latest-thinkin…

https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1602563559191449600

The proposed regime is much wider + more onerous than regimes in Australia + US cited as precedents. Section B of the briefing contains many very surprising examples of the kinds of entities, people and activities that *are* caught and a couple of those that are *not* 2/

As drafted the proposed scheme places public registration requirements, + related obligations on organisations + individuals with criminal sanctions punishable with imprisonment, a fine or both on almost all foreign entities (even if fully UK based and operated) 3/

with no focus on national security related characteristics, which means eg That in addition to all foreign organisations, a foreign subsidiary of a UK business would fulfil the criteria to be caught by requirements of the scheme. Similarly a UK subsidiary of a foreign 4/

organisation where directed (or worried about the perception of direction) by its parent would be caught. The scheme relates to a huge swathe of activities with no focus on national security related characteristics: 5/

Eg: any routine UK/ devolved government/ regulatory decisions for business from whatever branches of Government are included (eg. BEIS, including its new Investment Security Unit, the CMA, HMRC etc) would have to be assumed to be in scope in practice in circumstances 6/

where the content might involve civil servants of deputy director (or equivalent) in correspondence and meetings. And:
any engagement with such officials in relation to public policy debates which live in any UK parliament are also in scope as is engagement with any MP 7/

MSP, MS or peer to influence on anything (the latter not limited to government decisions or policy).
 
The information required has limited confidentiality exemptions and is unusually intrusive. Investors do not usually like publicising their future plans. Can also be 8/

Dangerous in human rights situations etc. even if rules later catch up - might terrible mistakes happen with so much unnecessary confidential information being centrally collected by the home office? 9/

The scheme criminalises an almost uncircumscribed range of individuals, charities, academics, businesses and other organisations and individuals, for behaviours and activities usually categorised and encouraged as benign 10/

with fairly straightforward routes for the malign to continue as before. 11/

#Christmasfuture story: If #NationalSecurityBill proceeds as planned then this time next year #Christmasparties including representatives of foreign charities or other organizations which had unexpected attendances by MPs or Peers could lead to a spate of #criminality 12/

Given the above bleak context it is heartening to see this:
 

https://twitter.com/UKPolicyButcher/status/1602673649013903362?s=20&t=RtxUzspVB1UJAnliyBriyA