The foreign hand

Reviewer of state threat legislation to discuss new security laws

The National Security Act 2023, which replaced the Official Secrets Acts of 1911, 1920 and 1939 at the end of last year, will come under scrutiny today when the government’s independent reviewer of state threat legislation speaks for the first time about its implications.

A Jankel armoured police vehicle outside the Iran International television studios in west London in 2022, responding to threats from Tehran.

Jonathan Hall KC, who is also the independent reviewer of terrorism laws, is expected to argue that the new legislation should be tested in public. In a lecture at the Royal United Services Institute, he will express the hope that a power to exclude the public from criminal trials “if it is necessary in the interests of national security” is used as little as possible.