Spies for hostile states including Iran will face longer jail terms under new sentencing laws that take effect on Sunday.
Offenders convicted of national security crimes such as espionage, sabotage or foreign interference will no longer be eligible for automatic release halfway through their prison terms under changes enshrined in the Sentencing Act.
They will instead have to serve two thirds of their sentences and will only then be released by a parole board if they are deemed no longer a threat to national security.
They will also face an extra year on “licence” beyond the maximum of their overall sentence, which means that any breach of conditions imposed by probation, police and the security services would see them returned to jail.
The tougher approach coincides with the US-Israeli war on Iran and comes after warnings by the security services of the escalating threats to the UK from states including Iran, Russia and China.
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Last October, Sir Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, revealed that security agencies had tracked “more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots” in the previous year.
On Saturday, Police Scotland said a 34-year-old Iranian man and a 31-year-old Romanian woman had been charged after reports of two people trying to get into Faslane naval base where Britain’s nuclear submarines are based.
Blaise Metreweli, the new head of MI6, warned in December that assassination plots, sabotage, cyber-attacks and the manipulation of information by Russia and other hostile states meant that “the front line is everywhere”.
Her warning followed the jailing of six men in October for their parts in a Russian-ordered arson attack on a London warehouse providing aid to Ukraine. The fire at industrial units in Leyton, east London, on March 20, 2024 caused £1.3m in damage. They will all now face longer sentences in jail.
Confirming the enactment of the new sentencing powers, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, said: “States are deploying new hostile tactics on our streets, using proxies to do their dirty work and targeting our national infrastructure with cyber-attacks.
“Our police and security services have strong powers to defend and defeat these threats, but those responsible must face tougher consequences.
“That is why we are introducing new laws so anyone compromising our national security for a foreign state will face longer behind bars.”
David Lammy, the Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, said: “Keeping the British people safe is our number one priority as a government.
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“Those conspiring against this country should see this new measure as a clear warning. Public protection will always come first, and threatening activity by foreign powers will always be punished.”
The Sentencing Act amends the Official Secrets Acts and National Security Act to increase the jail time of convicted spies, saboteurs and cyber criminals working for hostile states.
The Ministry of Justice said that once released, anyone convicted of national security offences would be subject to rigorous supervision and some of the toughest monitoring conditions, such as being tagged, until the end of their licence term plus an extra year.
If Dylan Earl, the ringleader of the arson attack in Leyton, had been jailed now rather than last year, he would not be released until at least two thirds of the way through his 17-year sentence, and then only if judged by the Parole Board to no longer be a threat.
Earl was recruited by the Wagner Group, a mercenary organisation that acts on behalf of the Russian state and is proscribed by the UK Government as a terrorist organisation. Before his arrest, he was also plotting to kidnap a wealthy Russian dissident.
New powers, also taking effect from this week, will create a presumption that anyone convicted of a sentence of under a year in jail should be punished in the community unless there are “exceptional” circumstances.
An analysis of official figures suggests up to 43,000 criminals are set to avoid prison each year under the presumption, which was originally recommended by an independent review headed by David Gauke, the former Tory justice secretary. That is just over half the total 79,812 offenders jailed last year.
Judges will get powers to bar criminals from pubs, concerts and sports matches as punishment, to impose financial penalties that force offenders to pay back for their crimes or hand out unpaid work orders that force offenders to give back to society.
Under the act, criminals could also be released up to a third of the way through their prison sentences, as opposed to the current 40 per cent, if they behave and engage with education, training, work and rehabilitation schemes.
This change will not be introduced until autumn, by which time Lord Timpson, the prisons minister, has pledged that there will be a presumption that every offender leaving jail will be tagged.
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