King's Speech 2026: Tackling State Threats Bill

Tackling State Threats Bill

“My Government will introduce legislation to tackle the growing threat from foreign
state entities and their proxies”

● Protecting national security is the first duty of government. The threat to the
UK from foreign powers and their proxies has grown in scale and complexity,
threatening lives and undermining our democratic values. New powers are
needed to keep pace. The Bill will provide a powerful new tool to disrupt and
deter the activities of state-linked entities and those acting in concert with
them, equivalent to proscription under the Terrorism Act 2000.

● The Bill creates a new power for the Secretary of State to designate
organisations that are engaged in threatening activity linked to a foreign
power. New and existing criminal sanctions will apply to specified
organisations, including proxies being used by states to carry out their hostile
activities in the UK. Individuals acting to benefit those proxies will feel the full
force of our National Security legislation, and the accompanying possible
14-year sentences.

What does the Bill do?

● The Bill allows the Secretary of State to specify organisations, including state
entities or their proxies, that are engaged in activity to threaten our national
security, including espionage, sabotage and interference. This gives effect to
a recommendation by Jonathan Hall KC (the Independent Reviewer of State
Threats Legislation) to legislate for a power equivalent to proscription under
the Terrorism Act 2000.
● The Bill will create new criminal offences to disrupt specified groups operating
in the UK. These offences would capture conduct such as belonging to an
organisation or raising support.
● Offences in the National Security Act 2023 will apply to the organisations,
making it easier to bring prosecutions against individuals who are working for
specified proxy organisations, such as front companies and organised groups.
● Collectively, these measures will help keep the UK safe by making a tougher
operating environment for foreign intelligence services and their proxies.

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Territorial extent and application

● The Bill will extend and apply to the whole of the UK.

Key facts

● In the 2025 annual threat update, the Director General of MI5, Sir Ken
McCallum, said ‘in the last year, we’ve seen a 35 per cent increase in the
number of individuals we’re investigating for involvement in state threat
activity’. Over the same period, MI5 had tracked more than twenty potentially
lethal Iran-backed plots. He also described the threat from a range of state
actors, including espionage against our Parliament, universities and critical
infrastructure, as well as the commission of surveillance, sabotage, arson or
physical violence here in the UK.

● In Jonathan Hall KC’s 2025 report ‘Legislation to address the
state-based security threats to the United Kingdom’, he articulated the
legal challenge of proscribing state entities under the Terrorism Act 2000. The
Bill delivers on his formal recommendation for the Government to create a
new proscription-type power specifically designed to target state entities.

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