The National Security Act 2023 (Sovereign Base Areas) Order 2024

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order in Council)

This Order extends to the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia certain provisions of the National Security Act 2023 (c. 32) (‘the UK Act’) with modifications for the Sovereign Base Areas.

The Schedule to this Order sets out the provisions extended, in their modified form, to the Sovereign Base Areas. The numbering of provisions in the Schedule replicates that of the UK Act for sections and schedules, for convenience in referring to that Act, but the numbering of paragraphs within the schedules and of subsections within the sections does not replicate the UK Act due to the nature of modification required to extend those provisions.

In particular, the provisions as extended in the Schedule:

• create offences to safeguard protected information and trade secrets and criminalise assisting a foreign intelligence service (sections 1 to 3),

• establish a separate regime to protect sensitive sites from espionage and other state threats by criminalising specified conduct in relation to those sites and providing powers to police officers to deal with such conduct (sections 4 to 11),

• create an offence of sabotage to capture state-linked saboteurs (section 12),

• create offences to protect against foreign interference (sections 13 to 15),

• create offences relating to material benefits obtained from foreign intelligence services (section 17),

• create an offence relating to preparatory conduct (section 18),

• provide to police officers powers relating to entry, search and seizure (section 23 and Schedule 2) and arrest (section 27 and Schedule 6), and allow for courts to make disclosure orders (section 24 and Schedule 3),

• introduce a duty for a court to consider whether it is appropriate to reduce an award of damages to reflect terrorist activity on the part of a claimant in national security proceedings where an application is made by the Crown (sections 84 to 87),

• allow for freezing and forfeiture orders to be made by a court to prevent the payment of damages to a claimant where it is satisfied that there is a real risk of the funds being used for the purposes of terrorism (section 88 and Schedule 16), and

• repeal the Official Secrets Act 1911 (c. 28), the Official Secrets Act 1920 (c. 75) and the Official Secrets Act 1939 (c. 121) in the Sovereign Base Areas (section 94 and Schedule 18).

Article 4 of this Order saves the repealed Acts for conduct taking place before 23rd October 2024, including offences suspected of being committed.

An Impact Assessment has not been prepared for this Order. The territorial extent of this Order is the Sovereign Base Areas and no, or no significant, impact is foreseen on the private, voluntary or public sector in the United Kingdom.