Jarvis: Scheme to protect UK from covert foreign influence to begin summer 2025
Questions were raised about the UK Government’s approach to China during in the House of Commons.
A scheme designed to protect the UK from covert foreign influence will commence in summer 2025, according to the Government.
The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (Firs) was initially expected to come into force in 2024, but in August the new Labour Government confirmed a delay to its implementation.
Security minister Dan Jarvis said the Government now plans to lay the regulations in Parliament in the new year and they will take effect from the summer.
Conservative former home secretary Suella Braverman was among those to question why the scheme, established under the Tories, has yet to be implemented – and pressed for China to be included in the “enhanced” tier.
Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative former security minister, said MI5 has made “very, very clear” that Firs is “not worth having” if China is not in the enhanced tier.
Firs is designed to combat clandestine political activity by foreign agents in the UK.
The scheme would require individuals to disclose who they are in an arrangement with, what activity they have been directed to undertake, and when the arrangement was made.
The enhanced tier gives ministers the power to require registration of a broader range of activities for specified countries, parts of countries or foreign government-controlled entities “where this is necessary to protect the safety of interests of the UK”, according to the Home Office.
Questions were raised about the UK Government’s approach to China during an urgent question in the House of Commons which also highlighted the case of alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo, who has denied any wrongdoing.
Mr Yang, who was known in a legal case only as H6 until an anonymity order was lifted on Monday, last week lost an appeal over a decision to bar him from entering the UK on national security grounds.
Speaking in the Commons, Conservative former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: “Can I just say that Yang Tengbo, H6, was in fact not a lone wolf.
“He was one of some 40,000 members of the United Work Department which the intelligence security committee report last year said, and I quote – and known to Government – ‘Had penetrated every sector of the UK economy, spying, stealing intellectual property, influencing and shaping our institutions’.”
He added: “So will the Government commit to putting China now in the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, and will they do it now? No more delay. There is no need for delay.”
Mr Jarvis replied: “Upon our arrival in Government, we found that Firs was not ready to be implemented – as has been claimed – and since coming into office, we have ensured that there are now more people than ever working on Firs implementation.
“The case management team have been recruited and are now in place.”
He added: “We plan to lay the regulations that underpin the scheme early in the new year ahead of the scheme going live in the summer.
“And as we’ve previously committed, we will provide three months’ notice of the scheme go-live date to enable all of those who will be affected by it adequate time to prepare.”
He added: “The scheme will be underpinned by an IT solution consisting of a registration platform, a case-management system and an online public register.
“The IT programme developed under the previous government was not ready for the scheme to go live, and plans were not sufficiently robust. This Government has progressed at pace the work to ensure that we are in a position to launch Firs.”
He continued: “Work is under way to identify which foreign powers will be placed on the enhanced tier that will be based on robust security and intelligence analysis, the Home Secretary and I plan to begin setting up the Government’s approach to the use of the enhanced tier in due course.”
Mrs Braverman said she made the decision to exclude Mr Yang from the UK because his presence “posed a threat to our national security”, adding: “That decision was based on the advice of MI5 and I’m very pleased that the High Court has upheld that decision.”
She added: “Isn’t it regrettable that it has taken a high profile case, public outcry and opposition MPs dragging the minister to the chamber to finally get the Government to commit to implementing the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, a scheme that we enacted and that was ready to go at the time of the general election?”
Mrs Braverman highlighted the “unprecedented threat” posed by China, adding: “If the Government is really serious about tackling the Chinese threat, when will it list China on the enhanced tier?”
Mr Jarvis, in his reply, said: “The previous government had a significant amount of time, many months, from the passing of the National Security Act where they could have chosen to implement the Firs scheme.
“They didn’t implement the Firs scheme, it now falls to this Government to do so.”
Mr Tugendhat said he was assured by officials that the Firs scheme was “ready to go by the end of the year”, adding “better late than never”.
He added: “The real question is whether it’ll be worth having and the advice from MI5 was very, very clear – if China isn’t in the enhanced tier, it’s not worth having.”
Mr Jarvis reiterated Firs “wasn’t ready to go” when Labour took power in July.
Mr Yang, who forged links with the Duke of York and mixed with other British establishment figures, has said he has “done nothing wrong or unlawful”.
