Policy paper

Prohibited places: National Security Bill 2022 factsheet

Updated 12 February 2024

Summary/key points

• The Bill creates a regime that captures harmful activity in and around sites designated as prohibited places – these are the United Kingdom’s most sensitive sites.
• The provisions introduce a suite of tools and measures to protect, and capture harmful activity at, prohibited places and ensure that modern methods of unlawfully entering and inspecting these sites are captured (such as through the use of unmanned devices).
• Should it be necessary, further sites vulnerable to state threat activity can be designated as prohibited places in the future.
• The Bill also includes powers to protect any military airplane crash sites in the UK from interference or surveillance.

Background

The existing provisions

• The current prohibited places provisions fall under the espionage offence within section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911.
• A person currently commits a prohibited places offence if they approach, inspect, pass over, are in the neighbourhood of, or enter a prohibited place for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state.
• The existing provisions set out the places that are, or can be by declaration, a prohibited place in section 3 of the Official Secrets Act 1911. They are mainly defence-related sites or those which are used, or can be used, in times of war although a number of civil nuclear sites are also designated under the power.

Reasons for reform

• The methods which hostile actors can use to enter and inspect the United Kingdom’s most sensitive sites have evolved significantly since 1911. With modern technology (such as unmanned devices/vehicles (i.e. drones)) and cyber developments enabling new methods of entering, access or inspection it is paramount our legislation evolves to reflect these changes.
• The existing list of prohibited places reflects the wartime period in which the legislation was enacted over 100 years ago – bringing this list in line with the modern landscape is a key reform.
• The existing statutory instrument power to designate additional sites that don’t serve a purpose for defence is limited given the reason for designation must be on the grounds that the information etc would be useful to an enemy. It is crucial that we update this to ensure a wider range of sensitive places that are vulnerable to state threat activity are capable of being designated in the future.
• Existing legislation does not include bespoke powers for the police to protect prohibited places which leaves them vulnerable to hostile activity.
• Although entering a prohibited place with a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state is a crime under the existing espionage offence, reforming these provisions with 2 new offences ensures that the wide range of harmful activity that can take place at prohibited places is captured.

Key facts

• The regime for protecting prohibited places already exists and is over 100 years old.
• Prohibited places fall under the existing espionage offence in section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911.
• The majority of defence-related sites such as military bases, ships or aircraft are already designated as prohibited places under the existing provisions within the Official Secrets Act 1911.

Key quotes

Law Commission’s Protection of Official Data report:

• Following their analysis of the existing provisions, the Law Commission recommended that “the list of prohibited places should be drafted to reflect the modern espionage threat” and that “the espionage by trespass offence should also continue to apply to those who approach, inspect, pass over or enter any prohibited place within the meaning of the Act”.

What harm do these measures tackle?

• Prohibited places are inherently sensitive sites that are likely to be the target of state threat activity or other types of threats that do not have a state link. Access to such sites could be a precursor to espionage offences or sabotage.
• The Bill provides new offences and police powers to deter, capture and prosecute harmful activity in and around prohibited places.
• It covers harmful activity conducted through different vectors including: physically entering a site in person, causing unmanned devices/vehicles to enter or inspect these sites remotely and cyber methods to access the site electronically.

How does the first offence work?

• This offence covers cases where the person has a purpose that they know, or ought reasonably to know, is prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK.
• It covers a broad range of actvitiy including a person accessing, entering, inspecting, passing over or under, approaching or being in the vicinity of a prohibited place (or causing an unmanned vehicle or device to do these things).
• This applies regardless of whether the person commits the offence from within the UK or abroad.
• It carries a maximum penalty of 14 years.
• Consent of the Attorney General is required to launch a prosecution.

How does the second offence work?

• This offence covers conduct that is unauthorised. It does not require a purpose prejudicial to the UK to be demonstrated.
• It addresses a narrower set of activity, excluding approaching and being in the vicinity of a site.
• The offence only applies to activity in the UK.
• It carries a maximum penalty of 6 months in prison.

How do the additional police powers regarding prohibited places work?

• These are powers that the police can exercise to protect a prohibited place and include ordering a person to cease their activity or move away from the site or arranging for a vehicle to be removed.
• A constable must reasonably believe the use of these powers at that location and at that time is necessary to protect the safety or interests of the UK.

How does the military aircraft cordon power work?

• The police can put in place a cordon around an area of a crashed military aircraft to protect sensitive technologies from interference or surveillance.
• A cordon can last no longer than 28 days.
• The power includes a reasonable excuse defence to safeguard those who had legitimate reasons to enter into a cordon, for example land owners.
• The police have similar powers to protect a site cordoned under these provisions as they do a prohibited place.

How do the supporting offences to the police powers work?

• A person commits an offence if they fail to comply with an order imposed under the police powers in relation to a prohibited place or aircraft crash cordon.
• The offences carry a maximum penalty of 3 months.

How does the power to declare additional sites as prohibited places work?

• The Secretary of State can designate additional sites and vehicles through secondary legislation. They can do this either by listing specific sites and vehicles or by introducing a description of sites and vehicles. Any site that meets such a description would thereby be designated.
• The Secretary of State must reasonably consider that designation is necessary to protect the safety or interests of the United Kingdom.

Case study (hostile activity around a sensitive site)

• In 2018 the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), based in the Hague, was investigating the poisoning of Sergey and Yulia Skripal with the nerve agent Novichok. On 10 April 2018, four Russian agents travelled to the Netherlands to undertake a close access cyber-attack against the OPCW. The Russian agents hired a car and were seen scouting the area around the OPCW. The Dutch security services intervened before the attack could be undertaken and discovered specialist equipment for carrying out a close access technical attack against the OPCW Wi-Fi networks in the boot of the car.
• This incident demonstrates hostile activity that can take place at, or around, prohibited places. If an equivalent situation were to occur in relation to a prohibited place in the UK, the police powers could be exercised to prevent the activity before harm could come to pass. If a technical attack on a Wi-Fi system was carried out, the perpetrators could be prosecuted under the first offence for accessing a prohibited place with a purpose prejudicial to the United Kingdom and be sentenced for up to 14 years.